Plaster Sinners — Colin Watson

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 Ã,£400, together with further curious developments, leads Inspector Purbright to the heart of a chilling but decidedly genteel murder mystery... First published in 1980, Plaster Sinners is the eleventh novel in the Flaxborough series and displays Watson's characteristic dry wit and striking observation. '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, and certainly the most consistent of comic crime writers, delicately treading the line between wit and farce... Funny, stylish and good mysteries to boot.' TIME OUT 'One of the best. As always with Watson, the writing is sharp and stylish and wickedly funny!' Literary Review