Tue 16 Jun 2009
A 1001 MIDNIGHTS review: COLIN WATSON – Just What the Doctor Ordered.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[2] Comments
by Newell Dunlap:
COLIN WATSON – Just What the Doctor Ordered.
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1969. Paperback reprint: Dell, US, 1982 [Murder Ink #37]. Published earlier in the UK as The Flaxborough Crab; Eyre, hc, 1969.
One measure of accomplishment for any writer of fiction is how successfully he or she transports us to his/her own individual world of imagination. Certainly one of the more successful in this regard is Colin Watson and his fictional town of Flaxborough.
Much to our delight, and to the chagrin of Inspector Purbright of the Flaxborough Police Department, an amazing amount of crime seems to occur in this English village.
Just What the Doctor Ordered begins with a number of sexual assaults on the women of the town. Miss Butters is accosted in Gorry Wood; Miss Sweeting on Heston Lane; Miss Pollock by the reservoir; and at St. Hilda’s a man threatens to “pollinate” Mrs. Pasquith.
The fact that the attacks are perpetrated by elderly gentlemen, who make their escape by running sideways, only adds to the puzzlement. Inspector Purbright at first suspects an herbal concoction that promises amazing renewed virility. But few cases are quite so simple, as any Colin Watson fan will tell you, and this one takes several additional turns, including murder, before a solution is found.
Inspector Purbright –flanked by his superior, Chief Constable Chubb; his subordinate, Sergeant Love; and his perpetual thorn-in-the-side, Miss Lucilla Teatime — is at the center of the Flaxborough novels, but the real stars are the amusing and eccentric townspeople themselves.
This and the other novels in the series are recommended without reservation. Those other novels include Hopjoy Was Here (1963), Charity Ends at Home (1968), Six Nuns and a Shotgun (1975), Plaster Sinners (1981), and Whatever Happened at Mumbleshy? (1983).
Colin Watson is also the author of an excellent sociological study of the British crime novel between the two world wars, Snobbery with Violence (1971; revised edition, 1979).
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
[EDITORIAL COMMENT.] Flaxborough fans — and I’m sure you already know who you are — will have already recognized this particular adventure — under its British title, of course — as the third of four Inspector Purbright cases that were adapted for TV by the BBC in 1977. The first two in the recently released box set were reviewed here not so very long ago.
[UPDATE] 06-17-09. Check the comments for a complete list of all of the Inspector Purbright novels, taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I don’t know why Watson and the Flaxborough novels fell into a sort of minor obscurity on this side of the pond. He is a wry, funny, smart, and amazingly civilized writer. A smile may be more common than a belly laugh when reading him, but that’s part of the charm. And he is one of the rare genre writers you can reread with full pleasure even when you know who-dunit and how, and still remember. Miss Teatime is one of the great creations in all the literature. There’s a streak of almost surreal comedy in the books that reminds me a bit of Flann O’Brien — which is pretty high praise for anyone.
And Snobbery With Violence is one of the best books on popular fiction between the wars. If you haven’t read it and you like the novels of the period find a copy. It’s one of my favorite books of its kind ever written, and one of the best.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Of the Inspector Purbright books, BLUE MURDER was not even published in the US. I guess it’s finally time I got around to doing this, but perhaps better late than never:
WATSON, COLIN (1920-1982) Inspector Purbright in all.
* Coffin, Scarcely Used (n.) Eyre 1958.
* Bump in the Night (n.) Eyre 1960.
* Hopjoy Was Here (n.) Eyre 1962.
* Lonelyheart 4122 (n.) Eyre 1967.
* Charity Ends at Home (n.) Eyre 1968.
* The Flaxborough Crab (n.) Eyre 1969. US edition: Just What the Doctor Ordered.
* Broomsticks Over Flaxborough (n.) Eyre 1972. US edition: Kissing Covens.
* The Naked Nuns (n.) Eyre 1975. US edition: Six Nuns and a Shotgun.
* One Man’s Meat (n.) Eyre 1977. US edition: It Shouldn’t Happen to a Dog.
* Blue Murder (n.) Eyre 1979. [No US edition.]
* Plaster Sinners (n.) Eyre 1980.
* Whatever’s Been Going on at Mumblesby? (n.) Methuen 1982.
Those through ONE MAN’S MEAT were published as hardcovers in the US by Putnam; the last two were done by Doubleday, and I don’t remember ever seeing copies. BLUE MURDER must have been caught in the transition, and I know I don’t own that one.