DI Purbright is going fishing for the "Flaxborough Crab" ,with Miss Lucy Teatime to make sure this isn't a case of the one that got away!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrago for a review copy of The Flaxborough Crab, the sixth novel to feature DI Purbright, originally published in 1969.

There is a sex pest on the loose in Flaxborough and the ladies of the town are frightened. With no clear cut MO. or much of a description except he's elderly and has a sideways run Inspector Purbright is at a loss as how to catch the man dubbed The Flaxborough Crab until Alderman Steven Winge dies after chasing Miss Pollock with amatory intentions. Clearly he is The Flaxborough Crab but Inspector Purbright is not convinced that this is the end of the case.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Flaxborough Crab which is a clever, amusing read. From the opening chapter where a librarian is attacked to the ironic ending the novel held me entranced as it is both situational comedy and a comedy of manners. I know that nowadays any kind of unwanted sexual advances are not acceptable but the idea of an unsuccessful geriatric predator scuttling about like a crab is highly amusing if not very P.C.. The reactions to it are delightfully understated and imply so much more than is actually said and very in keeping with the times it was written in. The involvement of the amoral Miss Lucilla Teatime adds an extra layer as the reader tries to work out her latest scam.

The Flaxborough Crab is an elegant, witty and quintessentially British novel which I have no hesitation in recommending as a good read.