Colin Watson (1920–1983) was an English journalist and author of a successful detective series set in the prosperous market and port town of Flaxborough in East Anglia. Flaxborough is a fictionalized version of the town of Boston in Lincolnshire where Watson was a journalist. The characters are said to be recognizable as people Watson encountered during his stay there.
Watson also wrote a review of crime fiction written during the first half of the twentieth century called Snobbery with Violence: Crime Stories and Their Audience (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971). Not only a literary analysis, it is rather a review of the social history and attitudes of the time that, Watson argues, led to the writing of the books. He does not attempt to consider every author but most of them receive his thoughtful and well-written attention.
Coffin, Scarcely Used (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1958) is the first of 12 witty police procedurals featuring Inspector Walter Purbright and Detective Sergeant Sidney Love. Later in the series Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime became a recurring character. BBC adapted four of the Flaxborough Chronicles for television in the Murder Most English series. Coffin Scarcely Used aired in two episodes in June 1977.
The passing of former justice of the peace Harold Carobleat did not occasion much comment from the Flaxborough populace, always quick to criticize, except to make them wonder at the smallness of his funeral cortege and the speed with which his profitable ship brokerage closed thereafter. However, six months later the peculiar demise of his neighbor, Marcus Gwill, owner of the town newspaper, apparently electrocuted in a field near his house, brought the local police out in full force and kicked gossip into overdrive.
The victim’s friends are strangely close-mouthed and his housekeeper is convinced the house is haunted. His attorney demands police protection but won’t say why. Then there are the newspaper advertisements for which Gwill took personal responsibility, offering antiques for sale, even though he was not known to own any. Even more puzzling are the responses to the advertisements expressing interest, each of which contains eight pounds.
Purbright gets little assistance from his supervisor Chief Constable Mr. Harcourt Chubb, who is anxious to wrap the case up and threatens to call in Scotland Yard to do so. The doddering and irritable Coroner likewise is more interested in speedy conclusions than accurate ones, creating great pressure for Purbright to get to the bottom of things rapidly.
Deviously plotted with a deliciously jaundiced view of Flaxborough’s morals and manners, the entire series holds a place among classic detective stories.