Colin Watson

• May-2018
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Flaxborough has its share of fat-cat businessmen -- 'wheels' (in US gangster parlance)... Like the brash Councillor Henry Crispin and snobbish Arnold Hatch, proprietor of the Floradora Country Club. Their bitter rivalry is well known, so when Crispin...

• Feb-1988
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• Jan-1983
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When Inspector Purbright goes to the funeral of Richard Loughbury, he finds himself caught up in a strange series of events in the peaceful village of Mumblesby, a situation involving both blackmail and murder...

• 1980
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Sergeant Love is a sucker for a picturesque country cottage. But he finds himself quite literally knocked out by the little bas-relief plaster cottage that's on display at Flaxborough's antiques auction. This pretty but rather crudely painted trinket...

• 1979
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A peculiar pornographic movie has been wowing viewers in the Gulf. One of the more scurrilous English Sunday papers gets a tip-off that this exotic blue production stars respected residents of the coastal town of Flaxborough, and a team led by the we...

• 1977
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• 1975
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(AKA The Naked Nuns) "Two naked nuns available Philadelphia" is the strangest cable ever to come to Flaxborough. Inspector Purbright is at first unperturbed by rumours of white slave traffic and international crime. But when the town is hit by a ...

• 1972
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As Miss Lucilla Teatime often remarks, there is no lack of entertainment in the delightful town of Flaxborough. What could be more wholesome than the Folklore Society's quarterly "revels", with dancing, a bonfire, and a quaffing bench? Well-upholster...

• 1969
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• 1968
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"I am in great danger ... I know that murder is going to be the reward for my uncomplaining loyalty." This letter containing heartfelt and urgent pleas for help is received by three very eminent citizens of Flaxborough, including the Chief Constable ...

• 1967
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• 1967
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Whatever can have happened to Lil? Flaxborough butcher Arthur Spain is worried that his sister-in-law hasn't been in touch lately, so he pays her a visit. But Lil's not at home, and by her porch door are a dozen bottles of curdling milk... Alarmed, h...

• 1962
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The gripping sight of four burly policemen manhandling a bath down the front path of a respectable villa isn't one the residents of Flaxborough see every day. Net curtains twitch furiously, and neighbours have observations to make to Chief Inspe...

• 1960
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Tuesday nights have suddenly turned quite ridiculously noisy in the country town of Chalmsbury, where the good folk are outraged at having their rest disturbed. It begins with a drinking fountain being blown to smithereens - next the statue of a loca...

• 1958
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Described by Cecil Day-Lewis as 'a great lark, full of preposterous situations and pokerfaced wit' Coffin Scarcely Used is Colin Watson's first Flaxborough novel and was originally published in 1958. The small town of Flaxborough is taken aback when ...

An elderly sex-pest is at large in DI Purbright's home town. Leaping out from behind bushes at unsuspecting females, making lewd suggestions and, when challenged, scuttling away with odd off-balance leaps, he soon earns the nickname of the 'Flaxborou...

With old-world charm and a military air, Mortimer Rothermere makes a most convincing conman. Just now he is employed by the Cultox corporation, to ensure that no breath of scandal taints the reputation of their successful pet food company near Flaxbo...