COFFIN, SCARCELY USED: The First Flaxborough Chronicle (A Rue Morgue Classic British Mystery)

Boulder, CO, U.S.A.: Rue Morgue Press, 2008. 1st printing. A fine, unread copy of the trade paperback. Flaxborough is a "high-spirited town .. .like Gomorrah." It's Inspector Purbright's job to keep its citizens on the straight-and-narrow in this comic romp. He hasn't got a chance. There were surprisingly few mourners at Harold Carobleat's funeral, just his widow and a handful of prominent Flaxborough citizens, including newspaper publisher Marcus Gwill. When Gwill' s naked body is found electrocuted some months later, its mouth stuffed with marshmallows, Inspector Purbright and his cherubic assistant, Sergeant Love, begin to suspect the two deaths are connected. But what are they to make of a series of peculiar coded advertisements that has been appearing in the Flaxborough newspaper? And why is the doctor's surgery so busy after hours? Remember, this is Flaxborough, a "high-spirited town .. .like "Gomorrah," where anything can happen, and usually does. First published in 1958, this is the first of eleven satirical mysteries featuring Purbright, Love, and other denizens ofthis anything but peaceful East Anglian town.. 1st Prtg. Pictorial Wrappers. As New/No Jacket. Illus. by Pudim, Rob. Trade Paperback.