Coffin, Scarcely Used

By Colin Watson

Book Overview

In the respectable seaside town of Flaxborough, the equally respectable councillor Harold Carobleat is laid to rest. Cause of death: pneumonia.

But he is scarcely cold in his coffin before Detective Inspector Purbright, affable and annoyingly polite, must turn out again to examine the death of Carobleat's neighbour, Marcus Gwill, former prop. of the local rag, the Citizen. This time it looks like foul play, unless a surfeit of marshmallows had led the late and rather unlamented Mr Gwill to commit suicide by electrocution. ('Power without responsibility', murmurs Purbright.)

How were the dead men connected, both to each other and to a small but select band of other town worthies? Purbright becomes intrigued by a stream of advertisements Gwill was putting in the Citizen, for some very oddly named antique items...

Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson's tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.

What people are saying about the Flaxborough series:

"Colin Watson wrote the best English detective stories ever. They work beautifully as whodunnits but it's really the world he creates and populates ... and the quality of the writing which makes these stories utterly superior."

"The Flaxborough Chronicles are satires on the underbelly of English provincial life, very well observed, very funny and witty, written with an apt turn of phrase ... A complete delight."

"If you have never read Colin Watson - start now. And savour the whole series."

"Light-hearted, well written, wickedly observed and very funny - the Flaxborough books are a joy. Highly recommended."

"How English can you get? Watson's wry humour, dotty characters, baddies who are never too bad, plots that make a sort of sense. Should I end up on a desert island Colin Watson's books are the ones I'd want with me."

"A classic of English fiction... Yes, it is a crime novel, but it is so much more. Wonderful use of language, wry yet sharp humour and a delight from beginning to end."

"Colin Watson writes in such an understated, humorous way that I follow Inspector Purbright's investigation with a smile on my face from start to finish."

"If you enjoy classic mysteries with no graphic violence and marvellously well drawn characters then give the Flaxborough series a try - you will not be disappointed."

Editorial reviews:

"Watson has an unforgivably sharp eye for the ridiculous." New York Times

"Flaxborough is Colin Watson's quiet English town whose outward respectability masks a seething pottage of greed, crime and vice ... Mr Watson wields a delightfully witty pen dripped in acid." Daily Telegraph

"Arguably the best of comic crime writers, delicately treading the line between wit and farce ... Funny, stylish and good mysteries to boot." Time Out

"A great lark, full of preposterous situations and pokerfaced wit." Cecil Day-Lewis

"One of the best. As always with Watson, the writing is sharp and stylish and wickedly funny!" Literary Review

"The rarest of comic crime writers, one with the gift of originality." Julian Symons

"Flaxborough, that olde-worlde town with Dada trimmings." Sunday Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1788420152
• ISBN13: 9781788420150
• Release Date: February 2018
• Publisher: Duckworth Publishing
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A book that richly deserves to be back in print

I am thrilled to see that Rue Morgue has added this book to their offerings. The Flaxborough books are well-plotted, with three dimensional characters and deft handling of clues. They are also very witty social commentary that is as fresh and convincing now as when they were written. This book is the first in the series, and it includes the intelligent Inspector Purbright, his amazingly innocent helper Love, and a collection of villagers and townsfolks who provide a parade of human foibles. The details of the story, from descriptions to dialogue, are to be savored. The story is very funny, but never at the expense of the plot. Watson plays fair with the clues, as well. I hope we will see the rest of the series republished in the future, to be enjoyed by a new generation of readers.

An auspicious debut from a subtle master of the genre

Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels are one of those discoveries that readers should treasure. The vein of serious mysteries intertwined with humour had been richly mined by the likes of John Dickson Carr and Edmund Crispin already when 'Coffin, Scarcely Used' appeared on the scene in 1958. Over the next twenty-odd years, readers would be treated to eleven more outings in the Norfolk town of Flaxborough, each of them slightly more odd than the previous one.Crime in Flaxborough is met by the resolute Inspector Purbright. In 'Coffin, Scarcly Used', Purbright must determine how the naked body of an electrocuted citizen arrived in a most undignified position on a local electrical pylon. His investigations among the eccentric and somewhat perverse inhabitants of Flax. will reveal that if an accidental death looks somewhat too bizarre to be believed, then it may very likely be murder after all. Watson's talent for creating unusual names and situations for odd characters with shadowy motives, paired with what must have been a most distinctly English sense of humour, set this novel well ahead of most contemporary offerings - forty years ago, and today.This Black Dagger reprinting of the 1958 Eyre & Spottiswode first edition would be an attractive offering even were it not the only book of Watson's currently in print either in Britain or the US. If you enjoyed 'The Moving Toyshop' by Edmund Crispin or 'Landscape with Dead Dons' by Robert Robinson, then this will most likely be your cuppa too. Highly recommended.