Broomsticks Over Flaxborough
by Colin Watson
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Pub Date 17 May 2018 | Archive Date 16 May 2018
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Description
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-upholstered matrons and town worthies enter most enthusiastically into the spirit. So it’s unfortunate when a younger woman, the freethinking Edna Hillyard, goes missing that night.
Then the manufacturer of “Lucillite” (gives your wash lightness, brightness and whiteness), filming a promotion locally, is dismayed to find a gruesome bull’s head ruining his key scene, while desecrations take place in the church, and the press begins reporting on Black Magic and a Town of Fear! Are DI Purbright and his team really battling against evil forces?
Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson’s tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.
Advance Praise
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 threads some serious commentary and not a little sadness and tragedy within his usual excellent satire on small town morality and eccentricities."
"Re-reading it now, I am struck by just how many laugh-out-loud moments it contains. A beautifully written book."
"As always, hypocricy and skulduggery are rife, and the good do not necessarily emerge triumphant. Set aside plenty of time to read this book - you won't want to put it down once you've started it!"
"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
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781788420228 |
| PRICE | £2.99 (GBP) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Eric B, Reviewer
Wonderful! What more could the discerning reader wish for?
Here we have witchcraft, drink, drugs, sex, abduction…and murder. All wrapped up with some delicious satire at the expense of marketing campaigns and “ad-speak”… and an ending which took me totally by surprise.
This is Colin Watson at his sharpest and best, neatly skewering the higher echelons of respectable Flaxborough society and gently roasting them on a barbecue fuelled by wit.
This is a most enjoyable and entertaining read and as fresh now as on original publication in 1972.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrago (Prelude Books Ltd.) for the digital review copy.
Reviewer 34846
Are the goings on at the Folklore Society "whiter than white " ? Or are there "more things then in your philosophy " going on ? What has turned the filming of an add for Lucilite very dark indeed?
DI Purbright and Miss Teatime are on hand to see if things come out in the wash.
Review scheduled for publication date.
Elaine T, Reviewer
I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrago for and advance copy of Broomsticks Over Flaxborough, the seventh novel to feature Inspector Purbright, originally published in 1972.
There are strange goings on in Flaxborough like the folklore society's revels and young women walking the streets in fancy dress. The young women are part of a promotional campaign for washing powder and the folklore society is really a coven. Inspector Purbright is not too worried about either until a young woman, Edna Hillyard, goes missing, closely followed by the local supermarket manager.
I thoroughly enjoyed Broomsticks Over Flaxborough which has a good mystery and some excellent satire on business speak and paganism. I'm not sure if it was my mood but I found some of the detail in the plot difficult to follow, fortunately I got the gist. The novel depends much more on small details than the previous ones so I loved the fact that it is the unassuming Sergeant Love who cracks the case.
I must admit that I thought that unintelligible business jargon was a modern invention but obviously not as Mr Watson has produced pages of such gibberish. It is extremely amusing although, after repeat reading, I'm still not sure I understood it. What I will say is that he has captured the pretension perfectly. His other target is paganism. The thought of middle aged, middle class ladies and gentlemen cavorting in the nude (or in most cases, semi-nude as modesty prevents a full unveiling) brought tears to my eyes but he doesn't stop there as there are ideological differences within the group. Laugh? I couldn't stop. Mr Watson has a fine, nuanced eye for the foibles of English life which he brings to the fore in this novel.
Broomsticks Over Flaxborough is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.
Sid N, Reviewer
The discovery of Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels has been a joy. They are compact gems of wit, acute observation and plotting and every one so far has been an absolute pleasure.
The Flaxborough Crab is the sixth in the series, in which women of the town are subjected to thoroughly inept attempted sexual assaults (which they are often amusingly well able to deal with), apparently by an elderly perpetrator. Things, naturally, become more complex and Purbright and Love find themselves widening their investigation as the magnificent Miss Lucy Teatime also becomes involved.
It's typical Watson – and I mean that as the highest compliment. His portraits of the characters of the town are as shrewd and acerbic as ever and the writing is a masterclass in beautifully crafted prose and dry wit. This, as a "Treat" is being inflicted on the elderly by some of the town's worthies, will give a flavour:
"The chief organiser of the treat bustled into the room, rubbing his hands and saying "Fine! Fine!" over and over again. He hosed the Darbys and Joans with his smile and inflicted a vigorous handshake upon as many as lacked the presence of mind to feign earnest search for something on the floor." ("Hosed". Brilliant!)
Flaxborough Crab is a hugely enjoyable instalment in a wonderful series. Very warmly recommended.
(My thanks to Farrago Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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