Looking Back: "Coffin, Scarcely Used" and Mayhem Parva

Colin Watson's "Bump in the Night," reviewed below, was the second of his Flaxborough Chronicles. The first, written in 1958, was called "Coffin, Scarcely Used," and it is another witty romp about a couple of murders and assorted other illicit activities in a town with remarkably few civic virtues on display. Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love must solve the apparent murder of the local newspaper publisher, whose electrocuted body is found naked - and with its mouth stuffed full of marshmallows. Go figure. My full podcast review is available here .

Watson was also the author of a fine collection of essays about British mysteries, called "Snobbery With Violence: English Crime Stories and Their Audience." It's out of print, and the only copies I can find (at that Amazon.com link) are fairly expensive, but you may still be able to find it through your local library or a bookseller who specializes in mysteries. Watson's Flaxborough, in its licentious and sometimes criminal glory, is meant to be the antithesis of what he calls "Mayhem Parva," the typical English village of Christie and other authors:

It would have a well-attended church, an inn with reasonable accommodation for itinerant detective-inspectors, a village institute, library and shops - including a chemist's where weed killer and hair dye might conveniently be bought. The district would be rural, but not uncompromisingly so - there would be a good bus service for the keeping of suspicious appointments in the nearby town, for instance - but its general character would be sufficiently picturesque to chime with the English suburb dweller's sadly uninformed hankering after retirement to 'the country.'

There's a great deal more of that, of course, and while I don't always agree with Watson by any means, I do enjoy his writing thoroughly. It's worth seeking out, if you can find it.