Charity Ends at Home

The next, but by no means the last, in the Flaxborough chronicles from Colin Watson finds Detective Inspector Purbright in a ponder over some rather threatening letters which, inevitably, lead to a rather unpleasant and untimely death. A thoroughly enjoyable read once again and huge fun - beautifully composed, perfectly plotted, extremely witty with a dry and biting turn of phrase, Purbright is sure to please. Classic, comedic crime doesn't get much better than this.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Another instalment of Flaxborough crime: here Inspector Purbright is initially looking into an anonymous letter from a woman who fears for her life. Later a woman is indeed found dead. The fabulous Miss Teatime makes a cameo appearance as chairperson of some dubious animal charities, together with a disreputable PI friend of hers called Mortimer, who is on the track of an adulterous wife.

Some very entertaining set pieces, including Mortimer's appearance at a careers fair, and the reactions he receives when inadvertently acquiring an offensive charity pin. The letter which sets the whole story off is extremely well done - when it appears for the second time a light bulb literally went off above my head (well, figuratively anyway).

Highly recommended.

Excellent! Another mystery solved . Enjoyable,entertaining.

I did enjoy this book, a little slow in parts, but a book one just could put down till the end - although I would have like a little bit more at the end. It certainly had a thread of subtle humour running through it which added to the reading experience.

The Flaxborough Chronicles feature Inspector Purbright in the quiet town of Flaxborough. The fifth investigation for D.I. Purbright deals with the alarming murder of a local woman active in charity work. There are several possible suspects. She was heard arguing with her husband the night she died. Earlier that afternoon she had written a very threatening letter to another charity organizer. And there has been a strange man skulking around town who claims to be a private detective. What or whom is he investigating? Letters begging for help were received by the Chief Constable, the editor of the newspaper, and the coroner on the day of the murder - but were they from the deceased? And, if so, why were they unsigned?

Readers familiar with Purbright's fellows on the force and some of the townsfolk of Flaxborough will be glad to meet up with these characters again. It is like seeing the faces of neighbors as one walks down the street. A newer acquaintance is Lucy Teatime, who appeared in the fourth book and seems to have set up residence in town. And the odd character of the "private detective" is certainly entertaining. How many investigators actually have too much to drink before a stakeout and then climb into the car of their surveillance subject and take a nap? Yes, it may be a small town, but Flaxborough has plenty to keep readers interested.

Readers who enjoy Miss Marple and mysteries set in small English towns full of eccentric residents will welcome having this series drawn to their attention.

Such fun! Such wit! Such excellent writing!

In the fifth of the Flaxborough Chronicles, charities of various kinds, both worthy and dubious, come under the Watson microscope and undergo some satiric dissection.

DI Purbright, Sergeant Love and Lucilla Teatime all appear but it is Mortimer Hive, PI and retired professional c0-respondent who steals the show.

The story involves a murder, which is almost incidental to the plot, and some anonymous letters, but the mystery is not all-important here.

Read and enjoy this novel, first published in 1968 and as entertaining as ever.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrago for the digital ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrago for an advance copy of Charity Ends at Home, the fifth novel in the Flaxborough Mystery series to feature Inspector Purbright, originally published in 1968.

Chief Constable Chubb is puzzled to receive an anonymous letter in which the writer fears for their life but Inspector Purbright is inclined to take it more seriously. Is there a connection to the death of charity worker Henrietta Palgrove? Inspector Purbright is inclined to think so but it is the timely interviews with with Lucinda Teatime and PI Mortimer Hive which solve the case.

I thoroughly enjoyed Charity Ends at Home. The plot is fairly simple with a few twists but it is very well done. The arch tone invites the reader to laugh along with the writer and his comments on Middle England, their habits and foibles strike true - I particularly liked his description of the victim's garden, replete with fake wishing well and gnomes. In this novel Mr Watson takes a potshot at charity fundraising and his clear sightedness could almost be seen as prophetic, from their collection tins to their treating it as a business.

Charity Ends at Home is a funny read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

A lovely, old fashioned police procedural. Not too challenging, but very enjoyable. Nice, light, entertaining reading.

Charity Ends At Home by Colin Watson is the fifth novel in the Flaxborough mystery series. The book has a smart, intriguing cover that gives a new, modern look to a novel that was first published fifty years ago. It recreates that era for us in a timeless way that doesn’t feel dated. We are conducted back in time very enjoyably.
The stately town of Flaxborough is awash with colourful characters. They’re not quite eccentric but definitely not quite ordinary. And a lot of them aren’t quite as respectable as they try to make out. The place is also awash with charities that don’t take very kindly to each other at all. So when a leading light of one of the charities is found dead, there are plenty of suspects, including her husband whose alibi quickly disintegrates.
DI Purbright leads the investigation, assisted by Sergeant Love. And there are another pair of investigators at work – Montgomery Hive and his friend Lucy Teatime. They interact, as do all the characters, in fascinating and delightful ways.
Comedy simmers below the surface in the form of razor sharp wit and situations that are almost ridiculous but somehow retain their dignity. An example is one magnificent scene where everyone is at cross purposes. The headteacher thinks one of his guest speakers, recruited at the last minute, is someone rather important but he is actually a private detective, although he’s masquerading as a photographer. He himself thinks he’s at a prize-giving rather than a careers evening. Add a few too many double whiskeys and some cheeky students and things don’t go as expected.
The whole book is full of wry observations and tongue-in-cheek humour, but it never collapses into farce or slapstick. This is what keeps the story lively, even though the action moves at a sedate pace and our characters are Britishly self-controlled. It’s thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

Even though you may have guessed the plot and the killer before they were confirmed by the spectacular ending, the book was an amazing read. Watson still incorporates his wit with his embodiment of rarely used words and amusing descriptions. Mr. Hive is a brilliant addition to Watson’s list of characters with his scintillating dialogs with himself. Miss Teatime is still a mystery and so is her relationship with Mr Hive.

Is Watson a misanthrope? If so, he's an extremely witty one! Once again we're back in Flaxborough where some strange letters have been sent to inhabitants...

While the mystery element holds its own, the true delights of these books are the elegant prose which punctures all pretensions and the wonderful characters. My favourite, Miss Teatime, is up to her old tricks this time with charity boxes!

Think EF Benson's Tilling novels crossed with Evelyn Waugh and you'll have a sense of these books - they're a delight.

I'd never heard of this series or author before, but I hope now to become a regular visitor to Flaxborough! This cosy crime series is charming, witty and thoroughly readable.

This book, I think the 5th in the series, follows Inspector Purbright as he tries to uncover the murderer of a woman considered to be central to Flaxborough's apparently very active charity scene. Throw in a slightly hapless private detective, some mysterious letters and secrets the townsfolk would rather keep hidden and you have a very satisfying mystery. Yes, it's slower pace than perhaps we (as modern readers) are used to, but it's absolutely worth a read. There are a few really funny scenes that would make this worth reading on their own (the careers talk at the school springing to mind) and some sharp, witty lines and observations. It doesn't seem to matter that I started reading mid series - the novel stands alone.

Overall, a humorous and well written crime novel that I would recommend to anyone who wants to spend time in a simpler, cosier and generally more comfortable past version of England.

I'm a big fan of the series, but this isn't my favorite installment. Don't be put off, it's not a bad book by any means, but the plot isn't as winding and fun as the others. The characters remain fun, well written with witty dialog, and the "fast stop" ending is in keeping with the other books. Looking forward to reading #6...

Entertaining, witty, just plain fun! As in his previous books, I love the eccentric characters. I lived in England for many years and felt like I was back there.

A Flaxborough mystery that leans in on the jokes; the entire atmosphere was, for me, lighter than the last few entries perhaps because the murder victim is even more of a cipher than usual and there is a rather comic private investigator louching about the town. A strong recommend.

Lucilla Teatime, who has become a pillar of charity work in Flaxborough, crosses paths again with Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love again when leading citizens receive identical letters predicting a murder... letters from the prospective victim.
Complex and funny characters, incisive descriptions of a classic English town, and a tightly plotted and original story make this a top-notch mystery.

I went straight on to this from the previous book and read it in one sitting. I was delighted to see the return of a character who we met in the previous book and I hope she’ll continue to appear in the series going forward. This is a fun romp through charitable works turned vengeful and murderous. Good fun reading.

Fifth in the Flaxborough Mystery series, Charity Ends at Home is another late Golden Age small English village cozy.

The village coroner, constable and editor of the local paper each receive an identical unsigned note stating that the writer is fearful of being murdered. The note references a photo of the writer but the photo is not included in any of the notes.

The plot and characters within Charity Ends at Home are unique. The mystery is great and unusual. This 20th century police procedural is worth 4 stars.

Thanks to Farrago and NetGalley for a copy.

This novel was originally published in 1968 by Eyre and Spottiswoode. Thank you, Farrago, Prelude Books Ltd for bring back this excellent novel.

Charity Ends at Home is a fast, compelling read, and I enjoyed the change of pace and lack of angst offered by this historical novel. The good guys are Inspector Purbright, Sargeant Love, Coroner Amblesby, and recently retired and feeling out a new career as a private investigator, Mortimer Hive. Mort is assisted by an old friend, local Flaxborough resident Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime. Londoner Mortimer finds himself on a job - finding and photographing the grounds for a divorce - in the small village of Flaxborough. On day two the job is cancelled when the couple agree to reconcile. But Mortimer and Lucila are having a fine time touching base.... And then a body turns up in the wishing well. And Mort can spend more time with Lucilla if he can hang around and help solve this murder.


I received a free electronic copy of this period novel from Netgalley, the beneficiaries of the Literary Estate of Colin Watson, and Prelude Books Ltd - Farrago Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

Despite this book being a more recent addition to my shelf, I read it before some of the others because of two reasons. The first is that it is a very small book in comparison to all the others I have and the second is that I have now got used to the pace of the book's sense of humour and knew for a fact that I would enjoy it.
By the time I reached this installment, I have a decent understanding of the workings of the people involved in the town, but even without that depth, this book can still be a fun read. I know it seems a little callous to term a murder mystery as a 'fun read' but the assorted cast and the dialogues can give it just that sort of distinction. In this tale, there are a lot of random events being described to us, and they seem liked fractured pictures of something that cannot become a coherent whole.It does all fit int together towards the end, I did not even suspect the possibility of what might actually have conspired while at the same time, it did not seem like a very unreasonable explanation. That is something that I am starting to realize ( five books into the series) seems like a trademark of either the author or the character of Inspector Purbright. In the beginning, the regular functioning of the town is described, with the additional point of a strange missive being sent out to crucial local people. Its presence is followed quite a while later by a body and a strange circumstance. The conversations between the people was as usual a highlight and Lucy Teatime, the enigmatic person from the previous book seems to have liked the place enough to have set down her very mysterious roots.

For anyone who has the time to take a leisurely stroll through Flaxborough and chuckle at the dry humour that will not make its presence very obviously known, I would recommend definitely giving it a try.

Charity Ends at Home, originally published in 1968, is the fifth novel in the Flaxborough Mystery series featuring Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love. As with the first four books in the series, it’s a good, solid murder mystery full of sly humor and wit and a colorful cast of characters that will keep you amused – and sometimes laughing out loud.

Anonymous letters have been sent to the Flaxborough Chief Constable, the editor of the newspaper, and the coroner expressing a fear for the writer’s life and begging for help. Purbright and Love’s investigation leads them to take a close look at charity fundraising organizations. As usual, nothing is sacred to author Colin Watson and he takes more than a few jabs at the groups and those that lead them. With the addition of investigators Lucy Teatime and Mortimer Hive and a few well-placed clues it’s a delightful mystery laced with Watson’s satiric wit.

I have become a big fan of this series and intend to read all the way through. I recommend Charity Ends at Home although it’s not one of the best in the series so far. It got off to a slow start and didn’t pick up quite enough, and the ending was even more abrupt than usual. But the plot and the mystery are secondary to the characters Colin Watson develops and the words he uses to describe them and their antics. As always, there are some vivid word pictures, although possible politically incorrect in today’s world, some deliciously evil characters, and those laugh-out-loud moments (the cricket ball joke alone is worth reading the book).

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrago for an advance copy of Charity Ends at Home.

Charity Ends At Home is another hugely enjoyable Flaxborough mystery. The plot revolves around the murder of an indefatigable charity committee-sitter, from which elements of rivalry, adultery, genteel jiggery-pokery and out-and-out farce develop.

As always, it's a neatly crafted mystery distilled into fewer than 200 pages and superbly written. Watson's style is, as ever, wry and witty and he uses it to pierce the hypocrisies and self-importance of many his small-town characters. The estimable Inspector Purbright and his colleagues are on fine form and the wonderful Miss Lucy Teatime reappears after her triumphant entry in Lonelyheart 4122. There are, of course, plenty of lovely phrases, descriptions and dialogue to enjoy; as a small example, as the fire brigade pump water out of a crime scene, "…the last of the water disappeared with a noise like German political oratory."

This whole series is a delight. This is the fifth; it is fine as a stand-alone book, but I am reading them in order and enjoying them all the more for doing so. Whether you start at the beginning or just read this one, I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)

One of my favorite things about this series is the originality of the storylines. This one starts when the competition for donations to local charities starts to get a little nasty. Then the head of one the charities is found dead. Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love are right on top of this one. In the meantime, Mortimer Hive, a private detective, is in Flaxborough on a job which just happens to involve the husband of the dead woman. He is also visiting his old friend Miss Teatime, who we first met in Lonelyheart 4122. Sergeant Love continues to have a more prominent role in the solving of crime which is delightful. All of Colin Watson’s book so far in this series are written with a great deal of wit and humor, but I found myself laughing a lot more with this one. This one seemed a bit shorter than the first 4 but the story was just as well constructed and the mystery well twisted. You definitely don’t want to miss this one!

This wonderfully entertaining take on the traditional British crime/mystery novel is attractively old fashion and zanier that most books in this genre. Set in the village of Flaxborough which supports 43 charities, 18 of which are canine and whose competitive committee leaders are entrenched in plots and counter-plots conducted to ensure the success of their particular organization.

A ""Dear Friend "" letter to the coroner, the constable and the town newspaper editor asking for assistance in preventing the writer’s assassination is followed by the death of Mrs. Palgrove of the Four Foot Haven. Did she fall or was she pushed into her goldfish pond? Could the culprit be one of her “doggie adversaries”? It’s up to Detective Inspector Purbright to root out the truth. Author, Colin Watson is accomplished plotter and he handles the varied plot strands and unusual characters, like Mortimer Hive and Lucilla Teatime with tongue in cheek assurance.

As always, duplicity and chicanery are at the forefront in this addictive series.

An anonymous letter in which the writer is in fear for their life arrives on the desk of Constable Chubb, but our intrepid Purbright is inclined to believe it is somehow tied to the murder of local resident and charity ‘maven’ Henrietta Palgrove. Several suspects are possible, and the help in uncovering the perpetrator is never-ending with the return of Lucy Teatime, new resident, and a PI named Montgomery Hive. From the start the story takes off into several directions (often spinning off Purbright’s pointed observations) as the habits, behaviors and the penchant for charity work / workers to get, shall we say, overly involved in their work. With so many different people investigating and discovering (but not necessarily sharing) information, the eccentricities and unique flavor of Flaxborough comes forward in each resident. All of the ‘investigating’ factions are often at cross purposes, making Purbright’s job a bit more convoluted and complicated than necessary, but this element simply adds delight for readers. While the story has several clever, and funny, moments: a particular delight is in the careers evening at the local school where the PI, masquerading as a photographer and thinking he’s to present at a prize-giving devolves with hilarious results after some pointed asides from students and a few drinks in.

Oh the mystery is solved and the culprit unmasked, but the delightful writing and character observations combine to bring a more cynical look at the penchant for charity work, the purpose of the charities and the secrets buried behind the public faces of the town residents. Watson’s prose, observations and a sense that much of the ‘daily life’ is riddled with nonsensical traditions based more in appearance than meaning, the story is a true delight. A bit slower to the reveal than a more contemporary mystery, these are must-reads for their cleverness in construct and well-developed, presented and commented upon characters that brings readers a sense of place and time. Another in the long line of writers of British mysteries that is sure to please fans of Christie – these are a clever escape sure to engage.

I received an eBook copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-9JG/” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

I am reading everything I can find by this author now. The book was well paced and I enjoyed the protagonist very much. Will be looking forward to more in this series.

This is another fantastic example of Colin Watson’s whodunnits and also still there are parts that had me in stitches. I have grown to really love this series of books. In this one letters are sent to three prominent members of the town and one Mrs. Henrietta Palgrove (the names are always wickedly divine) is found wrong side up in her garden pond. It is up to our favorite detective Purbright to solve the case and he brings in some interesting characters to help him do it. Loved it!!!!!!