The twelfth and last of the Flaxbury Chronicles, you really do find yourself asking the titular question, Just what has been going on in Flaxbury's neighbouring village? Of its time, but still wildly sharp, witty and clever, It's an entertaining way to cheer up a dreary British afternoon.

Not nearly as witty or as clever as the author intends. It's painfully dated, the characters are charmless stereotypes and the plot is obvious. Not least because the perpetrators are allowed to reveal the mystery before the investigator. Little to recommend it.

This is another delightful visit to Flaxborough – or this time the nearby village of Mumblesby – and another meet up with the quirky characters we’ve come to know and love like Inspector Purbright, Miss Teatime, Detective Sergeant Love and those kooky villagers, and to get to know some new folks, just as quirky and just as interesting.

As always it’s a good, solid, old-fashioned mystery with clues and suspects aplenty and Colin Watson’s trademark masterful use of language and wordplay. Some phrases will make you laugh out loud, some will have you scratching your head, and some won’t sink in for a while until you have the ah ha moment.

Thanks to Prelude Books for discovering and re-issuing these gems. Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblesby was another very enjoyable read that kept me guessing until the end.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley; all opinions are my own.

Another nasty mystery, with thoroughly unpleasant people and odd interludes of surrealism. The Flaxborough series is confounding to me; half the time I'm very confused as to the purpose of a particular scene (like I totally don't understand the import behind dialogue or what a shrugged shoulder, for example, is supposed to indicate to me as a reader with regard to the character doing the shrugging or being shrugged at) and the other half is really trying to understand the 70s-80s Britishness of it all. I don't not recommend this book, as it definitely goes in on the seriousness of the crime at hand, but I can't get full behind it - it's a real try it yourself and see.

Mumblesby is Flaxborough's neighbour and has been mentioned in passing a few times in some of the other older books. The story in this book has more twists than any other book in this series. A fitting ending in some ways.

The Mr Loubhbury mentioned in the previous book passes away. His death starts of a chain of events that has his clients on edge. This lawyer's behaviour does not seem to have been above board since all his clients have been making him 'generous gifts' over the years and they might want them back now. Inspector Purbright takes the place of his superior at the funeral and stumbles on something very suspicious. This has the most sleuthing involving Inspector Purbright since he is actively trying to make sense of his suspicions. There are a lot of unsavory characters but most of them are not actually under the spotlight for long so they did not make a difference to how much I enjoyed the book.

Colin Watson's books are ideal for a little light reading, you won't be too surprised by the plot or outcome, but they are quite delightful.

When a solicitor named Loughbury passes away in Mumblesby, Detective Inspector Purbright attends the funeral in lieu of his superior Mr. Chubb. While there he hears a woman screaming for help and follows her to the late solicitor's home, finding not only the young widow locked in a bathroom but for some odd reason clothes strewn upon a small heater - smoldering - and a propane tank in a bedroom. He also sees something odd: a small piece of wood trapped permanently inside a steel cage that has been sealed into the wall, labeled the "True Cross". Curious indeed.

He waits until the widow, Zoe, and her mother return from the funeral before questioning her about the attempted arson. While she seems to ignore the implication that someone is attempting to murder her, Purbright decides to seek the truth of the matter and sends his detective sergeant Sidney Love to the village to see if he can discover any clues. What Love finds out is there are many unsavory characters living there, and not a appears to like Zoe, considering her no more than a concubine who was lucky enough to have been given Loughbury's entire estate. But when that estate includes objects d'art that apparently do not belong to Loughbury at all, things become even more curious than before.

When a strange "prank" befalls the widow, Purbright is determined more than ever to come to the truth of the matter, including letting the widow know that he isn't the fool she at first took him for...

This is the twelfth book in the series and I am sad to say, the last, as Mr. Watson passed away soon after writing it. I have read all of the series and have been completely satisfied with every one of them. I have to add in all honesty however, that no matter how much I tried, I could not like the character of Zoe. She seemed harsh and uncaring to me; someone who believes money can buy her an entreé into society, and otherwise will force her way in if necessary. Money can't buy class, no matter who you are or how much of it you have. She's not a person I would care to know personally.

Don't get me wrong; there are many other characters in books who were born low, married into money and were just wonderful. It was more that I thought Zoe was an opportunist, and not in a nice way. She seemed cold and calculating to me, and I don't care for that sort of person.

The rest of the book was, as always, highly entertaining and delightful to read. DI Purbright is as clever as ever, ferreting out the truth as he always does, no matter how well hidden people think they may have left it. He gets to the heart of everything by going over the evidence piece by piece, and watching him connect the dots, as it were, is the best part of each and every one of these books.

When Purbright realizes that a young woman from Mumblesby had not committed suicide as was agreed upon by both her husband and the court, it is exactly as I stated - Purbright takes the information given and parses it to discover who wanted her dead and why; he finds that the death is connected to Loughbury and several of the villagers; and he also learns that each of them have given Loughbury a very expensive item indeed; but for what reason? Is is tied to the death of the woman, who passed over a year ago? It is interesting how Purbright takes a small clue Loughbury had in his possession (along with the fact of those above-mentioned articles) and deduces the truth.

All in all, the ending, as always, leaves us with our own conjectures as to the final outcome; but it is enough to realize that justice has been done. While I am saddened that there will be no more in this series, I am heartened by the fact that I was able to read them. Recommended.

The last ever instalment by Colin Watson of his Flaxborough Chronicles… The last one there is but the first one ever for me. I have to admit I have not heard of this author before even though my MA is in Crime Fiction and British crime fiction was a big part of my research.
The story of strange events in Mumblesby, a sleepy country town was a bit noisy. It had too many words that had too little purpose. However, once taken, the story turned out to be quite convoluted and fun. Gosh, those tiny villages in English country-side are dangerous places to be.
Too many secrets per person, if you ask me. There were adultery and blackmail, dodgy lawyer and hush-hush long-term affairs. And of course, there were ‘downstairs’ and ‘upstairs’ – ‘people who hunt’ and those who could never be invited to hunt.
A funeral of local lawyer pulls a thread on a lot of dangerous secrets. Local detectives do a great job of ‘stakeholder engagement’ and ‘establishing rapport’ meanwhile uncovering a crime of murder.
All in all, this book was a fun read however prolonged with noisiness of the text itself.
Colin Watson and his Flaxborough Chronicles is a new find for me. Would I read the rest? I am not sure.

I recently discovered this author while searching for read alikes to the British police procedurals of the 20th century. Very happy that they are available in digital format. You do not need to read the series in order.. Alas, this is the last in the series . Very clever writing and characters that are over the top.
Many thanks to NetGalley for a free copy. Highly recommend the entire series.

This is the final story in the Flaxborough series however you could easily read this as a standalone.

It isn’t my favourite but I enjoyed that Miss Lucy Teatime featured in this book.

It is a cosy, quintessentially British murder mystery.

I’m very sad that this is the final installment of the wonderful Flaxborough series. I wish I had discovered this series years ago. Inspector Purbright pays such attention to detail! He is sure to get to the bottom of it. Thanks to Farrago and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the last book (#12) in the Flaxborough Mystery series. While it wasn’t my favorite, it still had many of the traits that I’ve enjoyed throughout this series.
Witty writing – “Thus Mr. Brian Lewcock…addressed…the wife who, despite his occasional urging of her to that course, showed no inclination to predecease him” (location 32). Sometimes the thoughts are so ridiculous that I get caught off guard and laugh out loud.
The unique relationship between Detective Inspector Purbright and Chief Constable Chubb. I wonder how Chubb got to be Chief Constable when he doesn’t really like to get involved or to upset the status quo. It is all the funnier then when he thinks Purbright is being a nuisance investigating things. In the end they get things worked out but it’s not without a lot of push and pull on their parts.
The manner of the crime is always fresh and different in this series and that holds true again.
This book had references to characters and events in prior books which I find enjoyable. Based on the beginning, I thought Lucy Teatime would play a larger part in this book. She’s an interesting character. I would have liked to have seen her more involved. All told, this is another solid mystery/police procedural.
Thank you to Farrago for providing me with a free e-copy of this book. I was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.

When a local lawyer dies, his home in a neighboring village is found to have antiques and art that are worth a bundle. What can this possibly have to do with the death several years before of a local farmer's wife? With his trademark goo humor and social satire, Watson brings F;laxborough into the 1980's with this novel.

It's one where the satire rests on class, wealth, and pretensions, and how all is not as it seems. Clues and suspects seem thick on the ground, but chance provides the finel clue.

As always, these mysteries are a delight.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence my review.

I’ve been working my way through Colin Watson’s re-released series: A Flaxborough Mystery, starring Inspector Purbright. Without thinking too much about it, I envisioned the series to be infinite and was surprised to learn that there were only twelve books and that the one I most recently downloaded was the twelfth – but I haven’t read that many. I’m reading them out of order! I’m going to have to go back and fill in the missing ones.

I just finished Whatever’s Been Going On at Mumblesby?. Our protagonist, Inspector Purbright, dutifully attends the funeral of a prosperous solicitor who collected antiques in the nearby village of Mumblesby, a village within the district of Chief Constable Chubb, Purbright’s boss. What should have been a mere courtesy – the man’s death was not suspicious – turns into another criminal investigation.

Mumblesby is a snooty village, inhabited by a few wealthy farmers and unpleasant members of the upper class. The recently deceased, Mr. Loughbury, is survived by a common-law wife who is much disdained as a gold-digger. Actually, she is a gold-digger. And she’s unapologetic about it. Moreover, she’s aware that some of the priceless antiques her husband has obtained, from those snooty neighbors, were not acquired in a strictly legal way. Nevertheless, she intends to sell them and reap the rewards.

That doesn’t make her a murderess. Especially since her husband died of natural causes. However, there was a suspicious death in Mumblesby’s past, ruled a suicide by a previous inspector. Now that Purbright is on the scene, and following what appears to be a threat on the life of Mrs. Loughbury, the investigation is reopened.

As is typical in Watson’s mysteries, the story opens in a rather scrambled fashion with abundant clues that make no sense. There are numerous newly introduced characters, presented with biting humor, and a few old favorites like Sergeant Love and Miss Teatime doing their part. It is Purbright’s steady, determined, yet placid investigating that pulls all the loose ends together.

These are not psychological studies of the investigator, or mystery/Romances where the detective and an interfering helper fall in love. The focus is squarely on solving the crime. Even so, the personality of the dedicated Purbright shines through and the narrator’s irony keeps these stories entertaining.

Clever plot of tying antiques and an holy relic to a church killing. Colin Watson, once again, introduced us readers to a new sets of unusual characters and his unique descriptions of them. He never disappointed me in his out of the ordinary plots, characters and whit. I will truly miss reading more of his books.

After the death of Richard Daspard Loughbury, a rather well-off solicitor, some incidents call the attention of DI Purbright. What Purbright will discover as the story unfolds, that's something I never saw coming!

The characters are so well-depicted that I almost felt I was seeing them. The absence of the technology we are so used to (the story takes place in the early 80s) was somehow refreshing.

The prose, although not fast-paced, is witty and elegant, I just loved reading this book!

Thanks NetGalley for my copy of Whatever's Been Going on at Mumbblesby!

#NetGalley #WhateversBeenGoingOnAtMumblesby #Mumblesby #ColinWatson

I loved this book set in rural England in the small village of Mumblesby. It is a "gentle" crime novel, written with wit and humor. I'm eager to read more like this from Colin Watson.

Trust the rich to make Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblesby? an intricate braintwister of a cozy mystery.

It’s 1981 and Flaxborough’s upper class neighboring town, Mumblesby, is in an uproar. First, solicitor Richard installed Zoe Claypole, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, in his house as his common law wife. Second, Richard died leaving his estate to Zoe. Finally, someone hatched an elaborate plan to burn down Richard’s house with Zoe in it. What about the expensive antiques with questionable provenance throughout Richard’s house? If you thought Flaxborough had some bizarre crimes, wait until you see Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblesby?

It’s sad to think this is the last book in the Flaxborough series. I’ll miss this zany take-off on the Miss Marple type British village cozy mystery. However, Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblesby? is an excellent end to the series. It is an intriguing puzzle sure to enchant all armchair detectives, myself included. 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Farrago, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I've really enjoyed reading this series and am sad that this is the last one. It's not my favourite - but it's still pretty good. An interesting mystery, a good cast of suspects and appearances from all my favourites of the regulars. Perfect old-fashioned cozy crime police procedural in rural(ish) England. Ideal for fans of George Gently and similar.

The English village of Mumblesby in the late 20th century has complicated social structures, with the remnants of the traditional class system meeting new ideas... and plenty of ill will and evil to go around. When a prominent citizen of the town dies suddenly, leaving his collection of art and artifacts to his new wife, the community seems to be ready to do anything to get rid of her.

But does that collection actually include a piece of the True Cross? And, if so, who is ready to kill for it?

Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love rise to the occasion.

The novel is tightly plotted, with the meticulous descriptions and targeted dialogue that makes the series so satisfying. Old friends from the earlier books turn up in this one, too.