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Coffin, Scarcely Used
- A Flaxborough Mystery, Book 1
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Series: Flaxborough Chronicles, Book 1
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
Non-member price: $22.78
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For its own very good reasons, Scotland Yard sends Dover off to remote Creedshire to investigate the disappearance of a young housemaid, Juliet Rugg. Though there's every cause to assume that she has been murdered - she gave her favours freely and may even have stooped to a bit of blackmail - no body is to be found. Weighing in at 16 stone, she couldn't be hard to overlook. But where is she? And why should Dover, of all people, be called upon to find her? Or, for that matter, even bother to solve the damned case?
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Bruce Attleton dazzled London’s literary scene with his first two novels, but his early promise did not bear fruit. His wife, Sybilla, is a glittering actress, unforgiving of Bruce’s failure, and the couple lead separate lives in their house at Regent’s Park. When Bruce is called away on a sudden trip to Paris, he vanishes completely until his suitcase and passport are found in a sinister artist’s studio, the Belfry, in a crumbling house in Notting Hill, and Inspector Macdonald must uncover Bruce’s secrets. This intricate mystery from a classic writer is set in a superbly evoked London of the 1930s.
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One February evening in northern England, a young woman is shot in the head and left in a coma. Eight months later she dies, thus becoming a welcome excuse to dispatch the odious Inspector Dover as far as possible from London. It soon appears that Isobel Slatcher could have been smothered in her hospital bed with a pillow. Now Dover may have two murderers to catch: one who pulled the trigger, the other the last visitor she had in her short lifetime. If, that is, the town’s warring Catholics and Protestants will only stop distracting him.
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London, 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. During a stroll through Regent's Park, Bruce Mallaig witnesses two men acting suspiciously around a footbridge. In a matter of moments, one of them has been murdered; Mallaig's view of the assailant but a brief glimpse of a ghastly face in the glow of a struck match. The murderer's noiseless approach and escape seems to defy all logic, and even the victim's identity is quickly thrown into uncertainty.
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Death in White Pyjamas & Death Knows No Calendar
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Two of John Bude's finest Golden Age mysteries return to the limelight. In Death in White Pyjamas a theatre-owner, a 'slightly sinister' producer, a burgeoning playwright and a cast of ego-driven actors have gathered at a country home to read through a script. But before the production reaches the stage, one of their number is found murdered in the grounds wearing what seems to be somebody else's white pyjamas.
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When the body of a well-known local thug is discovered, an intriguing message found on his battered corpse raises unwelcome questions. Is DS Bishop being accused of the grisly murder, or does the message point to a more sinister secret? As the body count grows, Bishop and Knight find themselves in a race against time to discover the identity of a merciless killer whose motivation is a mystery.
Publisher's Summary
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.
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What listeners say about Coffin, Scarcely Used
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- fiona kew
- 22-05-2020
good old British crime novel.
found it a bit of a struggle to start with. all that stuff upper lip stuff but as story and characters developed throughly enjoy the story.
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- Sharon
- 02-05-2020
Perfect for Catherine Aird and Dorothy Sayers fans
I haven't researched this author yet, but this is a story the equal of those of the Golden Age of Mystery -- fans of the beloved Catherine Aird (Sloan and Crosby series) and Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey series) and Ngaio Marsh (detective series) will enjoy this novel. This novel is for people who like intellectual mysteries, who enjoy puzzles, who like the well crafted tongue in cheek wit of British mysteries of the 1930's thru 1970's … I am very much hoping this author has written many more, as I've already collected all of the Airds, Sayers, Marsh, Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout), and other golden age writers. If those novels run to your taste also, and you can tolerate a well crafted slice of life romance with complications, then I recommend Georgette Heyer to you … try The Reluctant Widow first , it's very amusing.
4 people found this helpful
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- Patricia
- 08-03-2020
Carefully Crafted Puzzle
I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. Unlike another reviewer, I thought the narrator did a very fine job. I can't imagine what she expected, but I believe Shepherd was a perfect choice to read this book.
3 people found this helpful
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- Berryjazzy
- 29-03-2020
Coffin Scarcely Used
Performance was superb! Simon shepherd made this story come alive! I could listen to him for hours!
2 people found this helpful
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- John S.
- 11-06-2020
Couldn't get into it
Should've been a contender, but I had trouble following the story. By the end, I still had no real idea of the characters, nor exactly what had happened. It wasn't a bad, or dull, book; just never got an traction. Will try another to see whether that works better as the writing itself, and narration, were fine.
1 person found this helpful
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- Zeeta
- 04-05-2020
Excellent, more please!
Please acquire the rest of the Flaxborough mysteries series so that I can buy them. I love the author's sense of fun as he creates intriguing plots and characters. However, the wry observations on human behavior and hilarious internal thoughts and the dialog are just wonderful. These mysteries are so entertaining and Simon Shepherd is the perfect narrator for them, More please!
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- ms p j rann
- 17-02-2020
What fun
I came across Colin Watson in the 70's through the TV dramatisations, that encouraged me to read the books and I loved them. Although this recording does not quite capture the idiocyncracies and laid back sophistication of Inspector Purbright it was pretty good and as the reader warmed to his work the book improved. However I recommend the other two books 'A bump in the Night' and best of all 'Hopjoy was Here'. Watson is funny, macabre and has a cynical perception of small town life (well he was the editor of a local newspaper). It's nice to see that he is rude about everyone.
Please please can we meet Miss Teacup one of my favourite characters in his ouvre - more would be most appreciated.
2 people found this helpful
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- D R
- 17-02-2020
Disappointing was expecting more
I bought these stories because i had recorded & listened to BBC dramatised plays of Colin Watson books about 25 years ago
these books lack the dry humour of inspector Purbright thus the reading is just dry
2 people found this helpful
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- Portrait Artist
- 23-02-2020
Dreadful!
I had hoped that Simon Shepherd would bring a professional actor's quality performance to this story. How wrong could I be? This was the worst recording I have heard to date. His rendering of this story was monotonous and menacing. I was unable to distinguish between the story telling and the characters and I could not finish Chapter Two. My favourite time to enjoy Audible stories is when I am relaxed and not rushing around so I listen in bed. On this occasion I, eventually, fell into a troubled sleep which turned into a nightmare where I felt I was being strangled. I am so disappointed. Mr Shepherd is a good actor but I am returning this production as, in this case, his performance is abysmal and, actually, quite disturbing.
1 person found this helpful
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- Jane
- 10-10-2020
Dreary
I lost interest in this quite early on. I persisted with listening right to the end, but It did not improve. Very disappointing.
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