A murder at an artists' colony - but not everyone wants Chief Superintendent Wycliffe to investigate... The first time Wycliffe has been published on the Orion paperback list.[...]
When Matthew Glynn is murdered, Wycliffe is mystified. Why would anyone want to kill him? But a look at Glynn's background reveals tension within the family. Alfred Glynn, an eccentric recluse, has born a grudge against his brother for years. The other brother, Maurice, argued bitterly with Matthew [...]
A beautiful schoolgirl goes missing from a Cornish village on the day she has told her boyfriend and sister she is pregnant. The possibility that she has been raped or murdered - or both - grows with every passing hour, and Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is brought in on the case. The investigation r[...]
A bizarre murder shakes the Cornish village of Moresk. Arriving at church on Easter morning the vicar discovers the body of a woman sprawled across the chancel steps. Has the church been desecrated by a Satanist ritual? Chief Superintendent Wycliffe sees the crime more as an expression of hatred dir[...]
Paul's Court is a quiet corner in the heart of the city: an oasis of peace and safety until the night when two of its inhabitants meet violent deaths. Old Willy Goppel, a German who specialised in making period doll's houses, is found hanging from a beam in his home; and fifteen-year-old Yvette Cole[...]
Chief Superintendent Wycliffe doubted whether he would enjoy his Christmas. With his wife away, he rashly accepted an invitation to stay with a Penzance lawyer and his family, but when he arrives the weather is awful, the house miles from anywhere, and the family less than welcoming. Then a young gi[...]
A dubious cul-de-sac just off the busy main road in a sprawling West Country port, Stanley Street is definitely not a salubrious place. And the victim, found naked and strangled in her bed is, appropriately enough, a prostitute. The local inspector believes it is just another sex crime, but Chief Su[...]
Writer David Cleeve lived exactly the way a bestselling novelist should live - in an opulent house set in a beautiful corner of Cornwall. But beneath the successful facade was a private nightmare. For at regular intervals a sinister and mysterious warning was delivered to him: a single playing card[...]
Every year, at Halloween, high on the Cornish cliffs, a life-sized effigy of a man is strapped to a blazing wheel and run into the sea - a re-enactment of a hideous old legend where the figure had been a living sacrifice. And now Jonathan Riddle, well-known and respected local builder and undertaker[...]
The Beales are an odd, reclusive family living in Ashill House, on the edge of Dartmoor: old Simon has withdrawn from active life; Nicholas and Gertrude confine themselves respectively to war games and the bottle; young Edward takes long painting expeditions on the moor. Only Frank Vicary, Gertrude'[...]
When Edwin Garland dies of a heart attack, no one outside the expectant circle of his relatives is concerned, but the situation changes dramatically when, on the evening of the funeral, his son is shot dead. Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is faced with a seemingly motiveless killing, and Edwin's will[...]
On the peaceful and secluded estate of Lord and Lady Bottrell, the body of amateur flautist Tony Mills has been found, shot by his own gun. It appears to be suicide - but a closer inspection reveals some sinister inconsistencies, and Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is called in. As Wycliffe begins to[...]
Wycliffe's home overlooks a peaceful, West Country estuary - but even here he can't get away from crime. When he is taking a Sunday morning walk along the shore, he comes across a service revolver with one chamber recently fired. In recent years Wycliffe has often regretted the fact that his rank cu[...]
There was no doubt at all that the girl was dead. The front of her skull and her facial bones had been splintered like the cracked shell of an egg. What made it even more shocking was the setting of the murder - an idyllic corner of the Scilly Isles where violent crime was almost unknown. Angry and [...]
The girl was young, with auburn hair arranged on the pillow. Wycliffe could almost believe she was asleep - that is, until he saw her face. She had been strangled, and someone had brutally smashed her face - but after death, not before...She lay in a seedy hotel room down by the docks, but her lugga[...]
Caroline Bryce came from the top of the social register in the tranquil town of Treen. So it was quite a scandal when her body was dragged from the bottom of the river. As Superintendent Wycliffe investigates, he is faced with a number of questions: who would want to kill the beautiful Mrs Bryce? Wa[...]
The peace of the village of Kergwyns in Cornwall has been shattered by a bizarre murder. A beautiful young woman has been shot. The only thing taken from the scene is the shoe and stocking from her left leg - exposing her deformed foot. Detective Superintendent Wycliffe uncovers evidence of an unha[...]
Two very different young women have been murdered within the same week. One was a singer in a nightclub, the other a nurse - but both were strangled in their own homes in very similar attacks. The press are quick to assume there is a psychopath on the loose, but Wycliffe suspects the truth may be so[...]
Simon Meagor was a lonely middle-aged man. With a broken marriage behind him, his life was centred on his antiquarian bookshop. In his past was the memory of a murder trial where his evidence had resulted in the conviction of a man who had subsequently killed himself. Now, to his horror, the daughte[...]
The Kemps were a Cornish Catholic family who had held on to Kellycoryk, their family home, for almost five hundred years. But it was beginning to look as though the present century would be their last. Roger, head of the shrinking clan, was desparate to save the house and land. His second marriage, [...]
Cochran Wilder disappeared fifteen years ago while on a walking holiday in Cornwall. Recently released from a psychiatric hospital after being convicted of indecent assault, he had been a serious embarrassment to his father, a prominent MP. Now his body has been found, buried in the dunes. It is cle[...]
When Cedric Tremain is charged with murdering his father by booby-trapping his fishing boat, all the locals are agreed that he is an unlikely murderer. But the case against him is strong: he has the motive, the opportunity and the know-how; not to mention the fact that there is some hard circumstant[...]