Hopjoy Was Here

Hopjoy Was Here is the third in the Flaxborough Chronicles and another winner in Colin Watson's classic English crime procedural. Like the other books in the series, this entry sees Inspector Purbright on the hunt for a potential murderer. It's not immediately clear if there has been a murder, so Purbright & co. have to figure out what has happened and to whom.  The author's incredibly dry humor and sense for the absurd is spot on and this book is really funny albeit macabre (see cover for this edition) in places.

This re-release, out 22 March, 2018 from Farrago is 160 pages.  Originally published in 1962, this reformat and re-release is available in ebook and paperback formats.  The plot is convoluted (in a good way) and the humor is wry and subtly sharp.  For having been written over 50 years ago, it has aged very well and doesn't seem very dated at all in my opinion.

Colin Watson was a really masterful and precise writer who wrote very enjoyable humorous books.  This is one of them and well worth picking up.

Four stars, I liked it very much!

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes