Colin Watson

Fearless journalist Clive Grail is bent on uncovering a scandal of blue films and blackmail in respectable Flaxborough. But when he publishes his revelations of the town's murky past he finds himself at the hub of a much more chilling and sinister crime...

Inspector Purbright tackles another mystery in the respectable market town of Flaxborough: a ritual killing is being linked to Satanism and black magic, but could it be a smokescreen for the real motive?

One of Flaxborough’s neighbouring towns, Chalmsbury, has been experiencing a series of explosions, which have destroyed several monuments. Inspector Purbright is seconded to the Chalmsbury police force to help try and discover who is responsible.

"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 himself. So when one of the town's most tireless charity workers, Mrs Henrietta Palgrove, is found the wrong way up in her garden pond, a connection seems likely.

Yet Detective Inspector Purbright finds the case does not quite add up and it takes the acute wits of his old friend, the ever-charming Miss Lucilla Teatime, as well as the more unwitting help of Mortimer Hive, indifferent private investigator and accomplished ladies' man, to tease out the real murderer.

This is the first of a series of novels set in Flaxborough and featuring the intellectual Inspector Purbright. Six months after the funeral of Councillor Carobelat one of the mourners dies in unusual circumstances. Whilst local gossips incline towards suicide or an accident, Purbright is yet to be convinced!

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 ‘Flaxborough crab’. No one can identify him, and it turns out that quite a few older gentlemen have begun exhibiting over-familiar behavior around the opposite sex.
Suave Dr Meadow knows more than he is letting on, yet how can Purbright, aided once again by the fragrant but dodgy Miss Lucy Teatime, get him to talk? Events take a darker turn before the ill-assorted pair succeed in catching their crab.

In Flaxborough a secret agent has been horrifically murdered, and Inspector Purbright starts to investigate. Soon two more operatives arrive, amazed that their colleague has been mudered in such a bland town, also looking for answers. Purbright has to use all his skills to get to the truth.

A collection of cosy crime dramas adapted from Colin Watson's 'Flaxborough Chronicles', set in a small Lincolnshire market town in the 1960s and '70s

Inspector Purbright is a thoroughly English policeman: affable, polite, dogged and decent. Created by award-winning crime writer Colin Watson, he appeared in 12 Flaxborough mysteries, four of which were adapted for BBC TV under the title Murder Most English. These five radio dramatisations star Peter Jeffrey, John Pullen and John Rowe as Purbright.

Coffin, Scarcely Used - When newspaper proprietor Marcus Gwill is found dead under an electricity pylon, shortly after the death of his neighbour Harold Carobleat, Inspector Purbright investigates. He soon discovers that something very odd is going on in the seemingly respectable town of Flaxborough.

Bump in the Night - Tuesday nights in Chalmsbury are becoming quite explosive: first a drinking fountain is blown to bits, then the statue of Alderman Berry is decapitated, and the following week a giant glass eye is shattered. On loan from Flaxborough CID, can Purbright find the mystery bomber?

Lonelyheart 4122 - Two middle-aged women have gone missing in Flaxborough, and Purbright's investigations lead him to local marriage bureau Handclasp House. Meanwhile, the resourceful Miss Lucy Teatime has her own interest in the agency...

Charity Ends At Home - The kindly detective probes dark deeds in the world of small-time animal charities - and uncovers a trail of murder and sabotage.

The Naked Nuns - An intercepted telegram hints that Flaxborough is home to human traffickers - and then a tip-off arrives from America that an assassin is on the way. Soon, Inspector Purbright finds himself picking his way through a case of vice and violence...

Content warning: These programmes contain strong language, and some dated attitudes.

The only connection between the disappearance of two women in Flaxborough, seems to be the Handclasp House Marriage Bureau. As Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love investigate, a vulnerable-seeming lady with the charming title of Lucy Teatime signs up for a romantic rendezvous, so the detectives try extra hard to look out for her. But Miss Teatime has a few surprises of her own up her dainty sleeve!

Inspector Purbright receives a very strange telegram, which leads to the discovery of strange passions lurking under the surface of respectable Flaxborough.

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.

The appreciation of antique objects is not perhaps Detective Sergeant Sidney Love's forte, yet the sale of Lot Thirty-Four at the handsome price of £400 at an antiques auction, together with further curious developments, leads Inspector Purbright to the heart of a chilling but decidedly genteel murder mystery…

In this book Colin Watson explores the social attitudes depicted in the detective story and the thriller.