Colin Watson - The Naked Nuns

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another cracker from Watson

The Naked Nuns is another excellently written, very enjoyable Flaxborough mystery – the eighth in the series.  As always, the mystery is well done and quite quirky, but the chief pleasure is Colin Watson's dry, witty and beautifully written take on his characters and the milieu they inhabit.

This time, there's a feud between two prosperous local businessmen, some dodgy goings-on at the club owned by one of them and anonymous letters from the USA warning of an impending "hit" in Flaxborough.  Watson has a lot of fun skewering the absurd use of language by Management Consultants, the shallow fakery around "mediaeval-themed" events and so on, plus some amusing involvement by American gangsters and the now traditional cameo appearance by the magnificent Miss Lucilla Teatime.  Eventually, after some engineered mayhem during a "Mediaeval Banquet" at the club, a body turns up and the redoubtable Purbright and Love work on the case.

It's classic Flaxborough.  Although perhaps not one of Watson's very best, it's readable, involving and hugely entertaining.  Personally, I'd recommend beginning at the start of this series with Coffin, Scarcely Used and reading them in order, but this will work as a one-off, too.  Whichever you choose, this is warmly recommended.

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