> Skip to content
  • Published: 2 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241977477
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

The Printer's Coffin

The Blake and Avery Mystery Series (Book 2)




The second in the Blake and Avery mystery series, following on from The Strangler Vine

It's 1841, and something very strange is going on in the back streets of London. There has been a series of dreadful murders in the slums of the printing district, which the police mysteriously refuse to investigate, yet the culprit must be caught before he kills again. Three years after we left them at the close of The Strangler Vine, and in very different circumstances, Blake and Avery find themselves reunited in a race against time to find and stop the murderer.

  • Published: 2 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241977477
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

Also by M. J. Carter

See all

Praise for The Printer's Coffin

Vividly realised...the second outing for [Blake and Avery] is even more fun, with the same blend of derring-do and elegant writing. ..Delicious stuff.

Financial Times

Witty and unfailingly readable...its contemporary resonance [is] all the more effective for being implicit.

Andrew Taylor, The Spectator

An entertaining stew of blackmail, murder, cross-dressing and incomprehensible slang ... like Dickens, Carter's righteous anger at Victorian hypocrisy does not prevent her from revelling in it with infectious glee.

Sunday Telegraph

While the relationship between the dynamic duo Blake and Avery evolves in a nuanced, tender way the real star of the show in this complex, clever novel is London itself.

Evening Standard

The Strangler Vine was a promising and enjoyable debut - plenty of action, rich in historical detail, all crowned with a very clever twist. Carter has proved with The Infidel Stain that it was not a one-off.

The Times

If this series is not bought for film, it would be another mark of the corporate stupidity that lost the BBC Ripper Street. It is, however, far more pleasurable and impressive to read.

Independent on Sunday

Vivid...done with brio.

Mail on Sunday

A sinister tale involving political revolution, printers and porn, The Infidel Stain drips with period atmosphere.

Bella Magazine

Compelling... Carter's book is historical crime fiction at its best.

Nick Rennison, BBC History Magazine