The Flaxborough Chronicles by Colin Watson
Requirements: ePUB or MOBI reader, 6.8 MB
Overview: Colin Watson was born in 1920. He worked as a journalist but was most famous for his twelve ‘Flaxborough’ novels, set in a small fictional town in England. Four of the ‘Flaxborough’ novels were adapted for television by the BBC under the series title Murder Most English and Watson’s Detective Inspector Purbright remains one of the most intellectual detectives in the crime genre. Colin Watson died in 1983.
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Coffin, Scarcely Used
The Old Boy Network in a small waterfront community spawns more than a few drinks and cards at the club. A doctor, lawyer, publisher, ship’s broker and undertaker are suspects in this old-fashioned British mystery.
Bump in the Night
Detective Inspector Purbright of the Flaxborough police force is used to a life of quietude in a small market town, yet he knows that behind the outward respectability of typical English communities a darker underbelly of greed, crime and corruption lurks. Chalmsbury, a neighbouring town to Flaxborough, has been experiencing a series of explosions that have destroyed many of the town’s monuments. Explosives have even gone missing from the Flaxborough civil defence centre and Purbright is seconded to the baffled Chalmsbury police force to help them discover the culprit. When one of the locals is killed Purbright is forced to delve into the community of eccentric residents in a desperate hunt for the killer and finds that, like Flaxborough, Chalmsbury is every bit as rich in genteel assassination.
Hopjoy Was Here
Within the quiet respectable market town of Flaxborough lurks a dangerous criminal; someone who has no compunction in committing horrific crimes. A secret agent has been murdered in unsavoury circumstances connected to an acid bath and it is up to Inspector Purbright to investigate, but it does not take long for two more operatives to arrive in Flaxborough looking for the same answers. How can one of their colleagues have been murdered in such a bland, provincial town? As ever Purbright must use all his skills as an investigator to get to the truth.
Charity Ends at Home
My Dear Friend …I am in great danger. The person whose loyal and faithful companion I have been …intends to have me done away with … When this unsigned letter is sent to three people in town none of them take it seriously. However, as with most events Inspector Purbright and the residents of Flaxborough realise that hindsight is a wonderful thing, especially when a woman is found dead in suspicious circumstances.
Lonelyheart 4122
Right at the bottom of the column, it was. Something for which she had not dared to hope. Not in remote, prosperous, hard-headed Flaxborough. A matrimonial bureau. Two women have disappeared in the small market town of Flaxborough. They are about the same age, both quite shy and both unmarried. As Inspector Purbright discovers the only connection between them appears to be the Handclasp House Marriage Bureau, but what begins as a seemingly straightforward missing persons case soon spirals out of control as Purbright encounters deceit, blackmail and murder.
The Flaxborough Crab
One female after another in Flaxborough, a quiet town in the east of England, is becoming the victim of sex-crazed maniacs. Groped in the street, preyed on in the woods, chased through meadows, watched by trouserless men through windows, forced to listen to dirty talk in the church vestry… Detective Inspector Purbright and his legion of constables have their work cut out for them. The only clues are that the attacker is elderly (he smells like cough medicine and has "dry, bony" hands) and that he runs in a very strange manner: sideways, like a crab.
Broomsticks Over Flaxborough
She pranced towards the edge of the clearing, swerved and came back for another fire vault. Her hands moved in gestures of sinuous supplication… Then Mrs Pentatuke would halt on tiptoe, shut tight her eyes behind the bejewelled glasses, and cry in a rich tenor: "O mighty spirit! We are thine! Amen evil from us deliver but!" ‘It is the eve of Saint Walpurga and the respectable housewives of Flaxborough are dancing naked around fires. It is also brought to Inspector Purbright’s attention that there are darker forces at work. This includes reports of Satanism, cult sacrifice and black magic, as well as the vicious ritual killing that shocks the town. Is there a practitioner of the dark arts in Flaxborough or is that just a smokescreen for a mere murder?
The Naked Nuns
‘TWO NAKED NUNS AVAILABLE PHILADELPHIA’ is the strangest cable ever to come to Flaxborough. Inspector Purbright, who has coped with a few odd things in his time, finds it opens a rich lode of skullduggery, deceit and sudden death. Flaxborough is a quiet market town in the east of England, discreetly prosperous, respectable and brimming with provincial virtues. However, beneath the bland surface, strange passions seethe. The little foibles of its citizens afford more than ample scope to the wisdom and pertinacity of Inspector Purbright.
One Man’s Meat
For lovely Julia Harton, unhappily married to a brutally successful pet food executive, a dramatic death in the fairground seems to provide a deliciously easy means of escape. But for Inspector Purbright, it is the harbinger of a bizarre and increasingly nasty case. Mysteries abound, including the precise truth behind the initials RIP, the role of Happy Endings Inc, and, not least, the exact contents of certain tins of dog food. Flaxborough is a quiet market town in the east of England, discreetly prosperous, respectable, brimming with the provincial virtues. But beneath the bland surface, strange passions seethe. The little foibles of its citizens afford more than ample scope to the wisdom and pertinacity of Inspector Purbright.
Blue Murder
A car mowing its way through Flaxborough market (and almost over Constable Cowdry) dramatically signals the presence of fearless, crusading journalist – Clive Grail, bent on uncovering scandal in that town’s quiet and overtly respectable back streets. In answer to published hints of revelations to come, the mayor issues a challenge of a bloodcurdling and – as Inspector Purbright patiently explains – illegal nature. However, the war of threats is not the worst of it. Those who play with blue films and blackmail often find themselves involved in more than they had bargained for; and soon Purbright finds himself striving to solve a much graver and more sinister crime… First published in 1979, Blue Murder is the tenth novel in the Flaxborough series and displays Watson’s characteristic dry wit and striking observation.
Plaster Sinners
The appreciation of antique objects is not perhaps Detective Sergeant Sidney Love’s forte, yet his critical appraisal of Lot Thirty-Four – comprising two golf balls, an LMS railway tumbler, an old meat mincer, two decanter stoppers, a soap dish and a moulded relief of a cottage entitled ‘At the End of Life’s Lane’ – at an antiques auction which sets events in motion. The sale of Lot Thirty-Four at the handsome price of £400, together with further curious developments, leads Inspector Purbright to the heart of a chilling but decidedly genteel murder mystery…
Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblseby?
Something’s been going on at Mumblesby. Inspector Purbright finds it odd that a widow should be trapped in a bathroom during her husband’s funeral – and that she should own priceless antiques purchased without bills of sale. The further he investigates, the more he uncovers about old secrets.
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