Detective Constable John Coffin investigates the murder of a young woman, whose body is found floating in the Thames with a sinister note attached to her. A gripping crime novel from one of the most universally praised English mystery writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie. In 1946, newly promoted detective-constable John Coffin arrives in Greenwich to take up his post. Soon after, the body of a young woman floats down the Thames to South London. It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder: the victim has been strangled, stabbed and mutilated. Attached to the body is a note reading "Present for my mother," a reference to former actress Rachel Esthart, whose son drowned under mysterious circumstances 17 years previously, and who has just received a postcard promising an imminent gift from the boy, whose death she has never acknowledged. Then two other bodies are found in the river, murdered in the same brutal way, and Coffin has a multiple murder case on his hands...