Kissing Covens by Colin Watson [BOOK CLUB EDITION / 1972] Flaxborough #7

Kissing Covens [Broomsticks over Flaxborough] by Colin Watson [FLAXBOROUGH #7]

FIRST BOOK CLUB EDITION [1972] G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Hardcover with dust jacket in very good condition.  Dust jacket has some light edge wear / creasing but is overall in great shape.

Book itself is excellent; looks and reads like new.  *name of orig. owner signed neatly inside cover. 

When a scantily clad coven of witches is discovered on the outskirts of Flaxborough dancing around a brightly burning fire in the reenactment of a medieval fertility revel, it is obvious that some sort of sexual hanky panky is going on. Yet the following day in the Flaxborough Citizen, their activities are reported merely as an innocent folklore revival. Not considered newsworthy is the mysterious disappearance of one of the "witches", Edna Hillyard, or the discovery of her neatly-folded clothes in her abandoned car. The subsequent routine police investigation for the missing woman uncovers bizarre goings-on in the seemingly quiet little town: Several prominent townspeople are being intimidated with black courses in the form of dead animals and human effigies, a second citizens is reported missing and an ancient horned bulls mask is found floating in the nearby river during the filming of a TV detergent commercials.

Despite of what seems to be an evil spell hovering over their beloved village, the citizenry remains unruffled and the local constabulary methodically gathers reinforcements to help unravel the string of puzzling events. But the discovery of the fatally gored body of Bert Persimmon, the missing grocery store manager, removes the series of a frightening game of black magic to the deadly game of murder and the phlegmatic Inspector Purbright begins a modern with hunt for the murderer. Once again he is aided by that delightful con artist, Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime, who has her own mysterious, if not decidedly unorthodox. sources of information.