Coffin, Scarcely Used

Coffin, Scarcely Used PDF Author: Colin Watson
Publisher: Prelude Books
ISBN: 1788420136
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
In the respectable seaside town of Flaxborough, the equally respectable councillor Harold Carobleat is laid to rest. Cause of death: pneumonia. But he is scarcely cold in his coffin before Detective Inspector Purbright, affable and annoyingly polite, must turn out again to examine the death of Carobleat's neighbour, Marcus Gwill, former prop. of the local rag, the Citizen. This time it looks like foul play, unless a surfeit of marshmallows had led the late and rather unlamented Mr Gwill to commit suicide by electrocution. ('Power without responsibility', murmurs Purbright.) How were the dead men connected, both to each other and to a small but select band of other town worthies? Purbright becomes intrigued by a stream of advertisements Gwill was putting in the Citizen, for some very oddly named antique items... Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson's tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay. What people are saying about the Flaxborough series: “Colin Watson wrote the best English detective stories ever. They work beautifully as whodunnits but it's really the world he creates and populates ... and the quality of the writing which makes these stories utterly superior.” “The Flaxborough Chronicles are satires on the underbelly of English provincial life, very well observed, very funny and witty, written with an apt turn of phrase ... A complete delight.” “If you have never read Colin Watson - start now. And savour the whole series.” “Light-hearted, well written, wickedly observed and very funny - the Flaxborough books are a joy. Highly recommended.” “How English can you get? Watson's wry humour, dotty characters, baddies who are never too bad, plots that make a sort of sense. Should I end up on a desert island Colin Watson's books are the ones I'd want with me.” “A classic of English fiction... Yes, it is a crime novel, but it is so much more. Wonderful use of language, wry yet sharp humour and a delight from beginning to end.” “Colin Watson writes in such an understated, humorous way that I follow Inspector Purbright's investigation with a smile on my face from start to finish.” “If you enjoy classic mysteries with no graphic violence and marvellously well drawn characters then give the Flaxborough series a try - you will not be disappointed.” Editorial reviews: “Watson has an unforgivably sharp eye for the ridiculous.” New York Times “Flaxborough is Colin Watson's quiet English town whose outward respectability masks a seething pottage of greed, crime and vice ... Mr Watson wields a delightfully witty pen dripped in acid.” Daily Telegraph “Arguably the best of comic crime writers, delicately treading the line between wit and farce ... Funny, stylish and good mysteries to boot.” Time Out “A great lark, full of preposterous situations and pokerfaced wit.” Cecil Day-Lewis “One of the best. As always with Watson, the writing is sharp and stylish and wickedly funny!” Literary Review "The rarest of comic crime writers, one with the gift of originality." Julian Symons “Flaxborough, that olde-worlde town with Dada trimmings.” Sunday Times

Coffin, Scarcely Used

Coffin, Scarcely Used PDF Author: Colin Watson
Publisher: Prelude Books
ISBN: 1788420136
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the respectable seaside town of Flaxborough, the equally respectable councillor Harold Carobleat is laid to rest. Cause of death: pneumonia. But he is scarcely cold in his coffin before Detective Inspector Purbright, affable and annoyingly polite, must turn out again to examine the death of Carobleat's neighbour, Marcus Gwill, former prop. of the local rag, the Citizen. This time it looks like foul play, unless a surfeit of marshmallows had led the late and rather unlamented Mr Gwill to commit suicide by electrocution. ('Power without responsibility', murmurs Purbright.) How were the dead men connected, both to each other and to a small but select band of other town worthies? Purbright becomes intrigued by a stream of advertisements Gwill was putting in the Citizen, for some very oddly named antique items... Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson's tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay. What people are saying about the Flaxborough series: “Colin Watson wrote the best English detective stories ever. They work beautifully as whodunnits but it's really the world he creates and populates ... and the quality of the writing which makes these stories utterly superior.” “The Flaxborough Chronicles are satires on the underbelly of English provincial life, very well observed, very funny and witty, written with an apt turn of phrase ... A complete delight.” “If you have never read Colin Watson - start now. And savour the whole series.” “Light-hearted, well written, wickedly observed and very funny - the Flaxborough books are a joy. Highly recommended.” “How English can you get? Watson's wry humour, dotty characters, baddies who are never too bad, plots that make a sort of sense. Should I end up on a desert island Colin Watson's books are the ones I'd want with me.” “A classic of English fiction... Yes, it is a crime novel, but it is so much more. Wonderful use of language, wry yet sharp humour and a delight from beginning to end.” “Colin Watson writes in such an understated, humorous way that I follow Inspector Purbright's investigation with a smile on my face from start to finish.” “If you enjoy classic mysteries with no graphic violence and marvellously well drawn characters then give the Flaxborough series a try - you will not be disappointed.” Editorial reviews: “Watson has an unforgivably sharp eye for the ridiculous.” New York Times “Flaxborough is Colin Watson's quiet English town whose outward respectability masks a seething pottage of greed, crime and vice ... Mr Watson wields a delightfully witty pen dripped in acid.” Daily Telegraph “Arguably the best of comic crime writers, delicately treading the line between wit and farce ... Funny, stylish and good mysteries to boot.” Time Out “A great lark, full of preposterous situations and pokerfaced wit.” Cecil Day-Lewis “One of the best. As always with Watson, the writing is sharp and stylish and wickedly funny!” Literary Review "The rarest of comic crime writers, one with the gift of originality." Julian Symons “Flaxborough, that olde-worlde town with Dada trimmings.” Sunday Times

Tales of Protection

Tales of Protection PDF Author: Erik Fosnes Hansen
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466814470
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 625

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Book Description
Four enthralling tales about chance, by the author of Psalm at Journey's End Tales of Protection is a novel about people in different places in different epochs -- contemporary Norway, nineteenth-century Sweden, and Renaissance Italy -- whose stories are bound together by the author's original and searching inquiry into why things happen the way they do. As the book opens, a dead man lies in his coffin reflecting on the past. Bolt was an eccentric scientist who devoted his old age to a vast research undertaking -- collecting random incidents from the history of the species and finding the underlying pattern that connects them. This kind of hindsight, after all, must be a kind of heaven -- or a kind of hell. His reveries lead him to tell two other tales -- the tale of a doomed lighthouse keeper on a Swedish island and the tale of rivalry among Renaissance artists -- and finally to tell a startling tale from his own early manhood. All of the tales, in his exquisitely suspenseful narration, demonstrate his theory of "seriality," which is the opposite of causality. Erik Fosnes Hansen's Psalm at Journey's End was acclaimed as one of the most original works yet about the sinking of the Titanic. In Norway, Tales of Protection has been called a "Blixenesque" masterpiece; it is a major new work of world literature, and a great leap forward for this gifted young writer.

A Small Zombie Problem

A Small Zombie Problem PDF Author: K. G. Campbell
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0553539582
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Celebrated illustrator K. G. Campbell (Flora and Ulysses) brings a touch of Tim Burton to this delightfully spooky new series about a boy who can't help but attract zombies. . . . August DuPont has spent his whole life inside a dilapidated house with his aunt Hydrangea. His lonely existence ends abruptly with a surprise invitation to meet an aunt and cousins he didn't even know existed. When newfound Aunt Orchid suggests that August attend school with his cousins, it's a dream come true. But August has scarcely begun to celebrate his good fortune when he is confronted by a small problem on his way home. A small, very undead problem.

Aurelia

Aurelia PDF Author: Anne Osterlund
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101200510
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
An impressive debut, equal parts commercial appeal and literary prowess. Princess Aurelia is next in line to rule the kingdom of Tyralt, but she would rather be one of the common folk, free to learn and roam and . . . not marry the next tyrannical prince that comes courting. Naturally, the king wants Aurelia to marry for political power. Aurelia wants to marry for love. And someone in the kingdom wants her . . . dead. Assigned to investigate and protect Aurelia is Robert, the son of the king?s former royal spy and one of Aurelia?s oldest friends. As Aurelia and Robert slowly uncover clues as to who is threatening her, their friendship turns to romance. With everything possible on the line?her life, her kingdom, her heart?Aurelia is forced to take matters into her own hands, no matter the cost.

Bolivar

Bolivar PDF Author: Marie Arana
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439110204
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
An authoritative portrait of the Latin-American warrior-statesman examines his life against a backdrop of the tensions of nineteenth-century South America, covering his achievements as a strategist, abolitionist, and diplomat.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Scholastic Gold)

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Scholastic Gold) PDF Author: Avi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 054592247X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Avi's treasured Newbery Honor Book now in expanded After Words edition!Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle is excited to return home from her school in England to her family in Rhode Island in the summer of 1832. But when the two families she was supposed to travel with mysteriously cancel their trips, Charlotte finds herself the lone passenger on a long sea voyage with a cruel captain and a mutinous crew. Worse yet, soon after stepping aboard the ship, she becomes enmeshed in a conflict between them! What begins as an eagerly anticipated ocean crossing turns into a harrowing journey, where Charlotte gains a villainous enemy . . . and is put on trial for murder!After Words material includes author Q & A, journal writing tips, and other activities that bring Charlotte's world to life!

Little Cruelties

Little Cruelties PDF Author: Liz Nugent
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501189700
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
From the internationally bestselling author of Lying in Wait, a biting and masterful new “dark jewel of a novel” (A.J. Finn, #1New York Times bestselling author) that explores the many ways families can wreak emotional havoc across generations, appealing to fans of HBO’s acclaimed series Succession. All three of the Drumm brothers were at the funeral. But one of them was in the coffin. William, Brian, and Luke: three boys, born a year apart, trained from birth by their wily mother to compete for her attention. They play games, as brothers do…yet even after the Drumms escape into the world beyond their windows, those games—those little cruelties—grow more sinister, more merciless, and more dangerous. And with their lives entwined like the strands of a noose, only two of the brothers will survive. Hailed by New York Times bestselling author Shari Lapena as “brilliant, engrossing,” and perfect for fans of breathtaking suspense, Little Cruelties gazes unflinchingly into the darkness collecting in the corners of childhood homes, hiding beneath marriage beds, clasped in the palms of two brothers shaking hands. And it confirms that Liz Nugent is truly “a force to be reckoned with” (Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author) in contemporary fiction.

William James

William James PDF Author: Robert D. Richardson
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547526733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 638

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Book Description
The definitive biography of the fascinating William James, whose life and writing put an indelible stamp on psychology, philosophy, teaching, and religion—on modernism itself. Often cited as the “father of American psychology,” William James was an intellectual luminary who made significant contributions to at least five fields: psychology, philosophy, religious studies, teaching, and literature. A member of one of the most unusual and notable of American families, James struggled to achieve greatness amid the brilliance of his theologian father; his brother, the novelist Henry James; and his sister, Alice James. After studying medicine, he ultimately realized that his true interests lay in philosophy and psychology, a choice that guided his storied career at Harvard, where he taught some of America’s greatest minds. But it is James’s contributions to intellectual study that reveal the true complexity of man. In this biography that seeks to understand James’s life through his work—including Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Pragmatism—Robert D. Richardson has crafted an exceptionally insightful work that explores the mind of a genius, resulting in “a gripping and often inspiring story of intellectual and spiritual adventure” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “A magnificent biography.” —The Washington Post

Charity Ends at Home

Charity Ends at Home PDF Author: Colin Watson
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571287409
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
My Dear Friend . . . I am in great danger. The person whose loyal and faithful companion I have been . . . intends to have me done away with . . . When this unsigned letter is sent to three people in town none of them take it seriously. However, as with most events Inspector Purbright and the residents of Flaxborough realise that hindsight is a wonderful thing, especially when a woman is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Charity Ends at Home is the fifth novel in the Flaxborough series and was first published in 1968. Faber Finds will be reissuing all the Flaxborough novels in sequence. 'Arguably the best of comic crime writers.' Time Out

The Victorian Book of the Dead

The Victorian Book of the Dead PDF Author: Chris Woodyard
Publisher: Kestrel Publications (OH)
ISBN: 9780988192522
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Macabre tales of death and mourning in Victorian America.