Rating: 5/5
Review:
Another little Flaxborough gem
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.)
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