Low key, quirky British mystery. Police procedural in sleepy little seaside town. Detective protagonist clearly over his head yet innately up to the task. Some decent plot twists and characters. Enjoyable.

Didn't like the writing style and never finished it.

Coffin Slightly Used is an enjoyable British police procedural, light on tension but pleasantly paced and delightfully witty.  There is a great deal of humor but it is subtle rather than laugh out loud.  It is a great mystery to enjoy while drinking a pot of tea on a lazy afternoon.

Harold Carobleat, respected councilor and do-gooder is dead.  Little is thought of this until his neighbor dies in what appears to be a bizarre accident.  Detective Inspector Purbright doesn’t get many murders, but he’s fairly certain Marcus Gwill would not have committed suicide by  electrocution.  Both men had the same associates and regularly socialized with each other.  Detective Inspector Purbright is certain he is being lied to, but isn’t sure why.  As determined as he is affable,  Purbright doesn’t give up, unraveling the complex mystery strand by strand.  

Coffin Slightly Used is a classic style mystery.  It isn’t graphic or violent. It is light, humorous, and quite satisfying.  It is a nice alternative that will appeal to readers who enjoy cozy mysteries.

4 /  5

I received a copy of Coffin Slightly Used from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

— Crittermom

I have been enjoying classic-style detective stories set in British villages and country house parties, lately. Yes, its a bit of a niche thing. I’ve nearly run through my library’s offerings of authors/series I recognize so obviously it was time to explore new to me authors/series. I caught a glimpse of this title and, what do you know, I’d inadvertently discovered one I was unaware of that’s been around for a donkey’s age.

The Flaxborough Chronicles series has been around a while. It’s getting a fresh coat of paint with this re-release. It’s also been the basis for the British TV adaption of the series called Murder Most English.

Coffin, Scarcely Used is the opening story in a series featuring Inspector Furbright, his sergeant, Sid Love, and a whole quirky seaside community of folks. I’m not sure what time frame these are, but its definitely not recent modern though, it does fall into modern age.

So, there is a death to start things off, but not a murder. No suspicions until the next door neighbor bites it, by electrical shock, no less. Furbright doesn’t buy the whole accidental electrocution or suicide theories or, the crazed housekeepers rantings about a restless spirit on the loose. With humor and wit and cleverness he teases through fact from lie with each encounter with the dead man’s friends and family. Gwill was not well liked and he had been up to something secretive before his death.

I enjoyed having the large pool of suspicious characters and the fun twists to the puzzle. I saw through most of the lies and the misdirections, but one final twist was a lulu. I liked the detective and laughed several times at the wry humor and the play between detective and sergeant and even between detective and his boss, the chief constable.

It’s definitely a chance to step back into simpler times for just a good mystery. I was glad to note that there are several in this series and I will happily keep picking them up. If British old-style detective murder mysteries are your thing, this one is a good bet.

I rec’d this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in a substantial series written by Colin Watson in the 1950's and now being reissued. If you are a fan of British mysteries set over half a century ago, you will probably enjoy this book; I did. The action takes place in a small town, Flaxborough, and is investigated by the town's Detective Inspector Purbright and his team. One death in the town is attributed to natural causes. When a neighbor dies, 6 months later, under odd circumstances, Purbright begins to wonder what is at the root of this death and launches an investigation, which takes many twists and turns, leading to a surprise ending. I look forward to reading another book in the series and hope I warm up more to the Inspector, who seems rather colorless in this first book.

A British whodunit from the 1950's with wonderful British Humor but not much of a storyline. Recommended for the dry British wit rather than for any particular sense of mystery.

Prepare to be delighted! Inspector Purbright is on the job in Flaxborough, so murderers beware. A local businessman dies and 6 months later his next-door neighbor is also dead. When Purbright discovers that the two men were friends and involved in a not-so-legal business with other local businessmen, he suspects the deaths are more than coincidence. And where does the not-so-unhappy widow fit in? There are many questions, but Purbright is on the job, and he and his men will find the answers.

The Flaxborough Mysteries were published in the 1950’s and are being re-released. This is the first in the series and should not be missed. While the story is more along the lines of a cozy mystery than a thriller, I found to be a joy to read. The author writes with imagination and wit and creates a story that is both full of mystery and fun at the same time. Inspector Purbright is very intelligent and clever, knowing exactly how to get the information he needs from his suspects. This is classic British crime and I highly recommend it.

A good classic old-fashioned mystery. I admit the British terms and the way things were worded had me a little confused at times and I’m sure I didn’t pick up on all the humour. Overall, I enjoyed this book and had fun trying to solve they mystery along with Purbright and Love. I enjoyed the banter between the two of them. I look forward to reading more books from this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrago for an ARC copy of the book.

I really enjoyed this English mystery. The dialogue and descriptions are witty and sometimes wickedly funny. One man is described as having “distrustful eyes and a wide slit of a mouth, designed, one would have thought, for the duel purpose of loud talk and voracious feeding.” However, he made “miserly use of his most extravagant feature, for he ate little and spoke only one-sidedly, as though half his lips had been sewn up to prevent waste of words and body heat.” (location 79).
There is a lot of great personification…i.e., .skeletal trees with tapering, motionless fingers. The language is so vivid. It’s a delight. There are a lot of big, uncommon words used and some that may have even been made up, like “whiskilated” ferocity.
The three main police are all so different. Officer Love is sweetly naïve. Mr. Chubb is kind of a bumbler. Purbright is very insightful and ultimately puts all the pieces of the mystery together. While people show up dead, there isn’t any graphic violence. It doesn’t need it. The mystery takes twists and turns and there are a few surprises along the way. I highly recommend it. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series.
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.

Alas, Colin Watson, author of Coffin, Scarcely Used is no longer with us!

Alas!

This thoroughly delightful novel was just what I needed to get through the winter blahs. It stars Inspector Purbright (and he is), one of the main characters in Watson's 12 Flaxborough novels. The book is set in England in the 1950s, and is replete with proper English. There is none of the slang one so often finds in modern mystery novels. The characters may hate each other, but they communicate properly.

As the novel opens, a fellow named Carobleat, a wealthy man by town standards, is laid to rest as cheaply as possible, which has the town on its ear. Carobleat presumably died of natural causes, but when his next door neighbor Marcus Gwill dies six months later, the causes are anything but usual. This attracts the attention of Inspector Purbright, who deems the neighbor was murdered.

A good many characters actually spent time with Gwill before his death, including the Widow Carobleat! What to make of that? And then there are those strange personal advertisements in the weekly newspaper--the very one that was owned by Gwill, but now goes to his nephew. With his sidekick Sergeant Love, Purbright is on the case, and thinks he is getting close when someone else meets his untimely demise!

This is a delicious novel filled with comedy and dry wit, things that go bump in the night, lively interactions, and a plethora of red herrings. I smiled, and often laughed out loud, every time I picked up the book. And, it's a whopping good mystery. I want to read them all.

Thank you NetGally and Farrago Publishers for making my day--and several nights--with this wonderful novel, which is the first book in the series..

I received a free advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my unbiased review.

This is a fun British whodunnit that hooked me quickly and kept me entertained and intrigued from the first page to the last with a great cast of characters, witty dialogue, and a classic mystery with twists and turns that kept me guessing. It was a bit old-fashioned but I enjoyed stepping back in time for an afternoon of reading pleasure. This is a perfect read with a cup of tea and a scone.

I got a E-copy of this book from Netgalley.

The mystery in this book was classic and well done. It had me guessing most of the way through and it was intriguing to try and figure things out before the inspector did. The relationship between Purbright and Love was interesting and at times fun. They had entertaining banter. The writing was good. Not something that stood out to me. All in all this was a good book. I don't think I would continue on in this series but it was a fun quick read.

Personally, the British terms used sometimes went over my head and I lost track of what was going on for a minute. It's fairly easy to infer what they mean when you read on for context, though. I did find one thing a bit odd. Throughout the book Purbright made many comments on women that made me think what he was saying was a bit sexist(Example: Super-sensitive menopausal subjects). I could be wrong but it's not surprising that some of those comments are in here. It is a sixty years old.

What an amazing discovery of this delightful book by Colin Watson, and how wonderful to learn there are more where this came from.

This is an old-style British police procedural with good, solid detective work that takes place in the respectable seaside town of Flaxborough in 1957 or 1958. It is a little gentler and more slow-paced than today's non-stop-action thrillers, but that does not mean it is in any way lacking in suspense, complex plotting, well-developed characters, or a seemingly endless supply of ingenious ways to die.

Prominent citizens of Flaxborough are dropping like flies, and it falls to Detective Inspector Purbright and his team to figure out what is going on. Suicide? Accident? Murder? There are clues aplenty, but they don't always lead in the right direction. And just when you think you've got your suspect, he dies.

The ending is a surprise, believable but unexpected and a marvelous lead-in for the next book in the series.

And if nothing at all happened in the storyline, the language alone would be worth a read. It is droll and dry and funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny. I often found myself doing a double-take at some particularly outrageous turn of phrase, or just stopping to read a sentence or paragraph over and over just because the wording was so devilishly clever.

I received a copy of Coffin Scarcely Used from NetGally and Farrago Books. I loved it, and am on my way to read Bump in the Night, the second book in the series, right now.

Colin Watson was a well-known writer of crime fiction set in the fictional small town of Flaxborough during the late 1950's. Farrago Books is bringing back new editions of the series beginning in February. For those who have an interest in British crime fiction, Coffin Scarcely Used is a treat. The town of Flaxborough is filled with quirky characters, both likable and unlikable. The main character, Inspector Purbright, is perhaps not the most charismatic but provides gentle humor and a dogged determination to solve the case. There are more twists and turns in the investigation of the related deaths that I could count. It kept me on my toes and I have to admit, I did not see the solution coming!

Thanks to Farrago and NetGalley for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.

I read this book thanks to NetGalley, and I pushed it up my reading list in order to have it coincide with its republishing. This book was originally published in 1958, and the difference in 'Vintage mysteries' are very clear when it is written by someone who actually lived in the era.

This is based in a small town of Flaxborough and the local constabulary is decidedly trying to get to the bottom of the case before Scotland Yard needs to be brought into the scenario (unlike most others that I have read, where Scotland Yard are the heroes). There is something to be said for local knowledge of the people of the town.The tale starts in an innocuous fashion, with just the funeral of someone we know very little about. A few months in to the future, there is another death. This death starts our Inspector Purbright down a path to identify the kinks in the case.The revelations are complicated and the ending was quite a surprise to me although I had given up on trying to guess the outcome.

The narrative has a very round about way of coming to the point and even though it might not appeal to a lot of people, I enjoy it ( I feel like giving myself a self-congratulatory pat when I decipher what the actual joke in all of the explanation).Overall, it was good read and I am looking forward to trying the next in the series and hopefully it gets better from here.

This was a fun read with great characters and lots of twists.

I was wooed to this murder mystery because the reviews likened this to a humorous mystery novel. As someone who likes humor in my Mysteries I said let’s jump in. The book had a couple parts where I chuckled but no place did I laugh my face off. Another reviewer said that she started with Book 2 which was funnier, we will have to see. I found the way to the conclusion to be very well written. Overall I think this is a well written mystery and I became obsessed with the characters. Almost instantly I was taken with Purbright. I found him to be brilliant. Will try the others and I will report if they get funnier because I was hoping for a little more humor in this one. The cover of this and the other two being released over the next couple weeks are amazing!

Synopsis: In the respectable seaside town of Flaxborough, the equally respectable councillor Harold Carobleat is laid to rest. Cause of death: pneumonia.
But he is scarcely cold in his coffin before Detective Inspector Purbright, affable and annoyingly polite, must turn out again to examine the death of Carobleat’s neighbour, Marcus Gwill, former prop. of the local rag, the Citizen. This time it looks like foul play, unless a surfeit of marshmallows had led the late and rather unlamented Mr Gwill to commit suicide by electrocution. (‘Power without responsibility’, murmurs Purbright.)
How were the dead men connected, both to each other and to a small but select band of other town worthies? Purbright becomes intrigued by a stream of advertisements Gwill was putting in the Citizen, for some very oddly named antique items…
Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson’s tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.

I read an ARC and chose to write an honest review

Colin Watson was a British, stiff-upper-lip kind of writer of detective novels. I was introduced to him several years ago when trying to find more Agatha Christie novels. If you do not understand extremely dry humor or if you do not understand British humor beyond Mr. Bean or Monty Python, you won't get the humor in these books. It is slightly similar to P.G. Woldhouse, but not as blatant. Very subtle, but very fun and sometimes surprising. I will be reading many more of this series, which I did not discover earlier.

Something to remember, in 1958 the writing was a lot more description because people back then had no Internet, video games, cell phones, computers, and went to the library for more reading material. Life back then was much slower, so the pace of the book is slower. If you enjoy Agatha Christie, you'll enjoy Colin Watson -- two different styles, but both with great story plots and twists that draw you into their world of fiction.

Received this eBook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This review has been tweeted and facebooked as well.

This was a difficult book for me to "get into". I love British mysteries like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, etc., but this one was difficult for me. It moved slowly at first and there were a lot of jargon/slang used that I didn't understand. As I continued to read, the story started to get interesting, but I had to read about 50% of the book before this happened. The ending was a surprise, some twists in the plot.

This was a real breath of fresh air and took me back to the days of Agatha Christie where jolly decent folks in an idyllic English village setting had their quietude and passivity of their rustic provincial lives disrupted by one murder after another. Nasty business, but there is no reason why all of this can't be tidied up in a polite civilised manner. In comparison with no holds barred harsh brutal reality that crime fiction has evolved into today, (and there is nothing wrong with that) it redresses the balance to go back to the golden age of whodunnit and murder mystery. There is a strong market for this type of fiction evidenced by television with Midsomer Murders and Death in Paradise.
Originally published in 1958, the story is set in the fictitious coastal town of Flaxborough where six months after the death of a town councillor his next door neighbour was found electrocuted and his mouth stuffed with marshmallows! I took my time savouring this one, loved the humour, and was unable to predict the ending, which took me completely by surprise.