Gwendoline Butler

Gwendoline Williams Butler ( Williams; 19 August 1922 – 5 January 2013) was a British writer of mystery fiction and romance novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Credited with inventing the "woman's police procedural," Butler is known for the Inspector John Coffin series and the Charmian Daniels series (published under the pseudonym Jennie Melville). Her works include modern detective stories, Victorian mysteries, Gothic tales, and romantic novels.

Biography Gwendoline Williams was born on 19 August 1922 in South London, England, the daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied History and later became a lecturer.

On 16 October 1949, she married Lionel Harry Butler In 1973, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) awarded her the Silver Dagger for her novel "A Coffin for Pandora."

Butler was a former member of the Committee of the CWA and a member of the Detection Club.

She died on 5 January 2013.