The Cornish Detective
6 total works
Wycliffe might be on holiday, but he still finds himself landed with a murder to solve...
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, the Jack of Diamonds. Then, one day, the card arrived torn in half - and that night a murder was committed.
Chief Superintendent Wycliffe was on holiday in the area but, far from relaxing, he finds himself drawn into the investigation. Before long there is more than just a single mystery to solve. As Wycliffe investigates, he uncovers a double murder, arson, and a whole series of crimes stretching back over many years...
A family feud leads to murder - and Superintendent Wycliffe is on the case...
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? Was it a lover's quarrel? Or a family feud? Or a long-held resentment which had suddenly exploded in a moment of madness?
As Wycliffe begins to unravel an intricate tangle of love and hate, he finds himself on the trail of a psychotic killer who feels no guilt - and will not hesitate to strike again...
Detective Superintendent Wycliffe gets drawn into the troubled world of an ancient Cornish family.
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 desperate to save the house and land. His second marriage, to the shrewd and tough businesswoman, Bridget, offered a way out. Bridget, prosperous head of her own company, wanted to take Kellycoryk over for development and although Roger hated the idea Bridget refused to save the estate in any other way.
Then - suddenly - Bridget disappeared and old memories began to be raked over. hadn't Julia, Roger's first wife (also a wealthy woman) disappeared mysteriously, presumably in a boating accident? Did Roger, his sister and his disturbed children know more about the past than had ever been revealed? Wycliffe, supposed to be recuperating from an illness in the neighbourhood, found there was too much that was intriguing about the Kemps for him to ignore.
On the beautiful, tranquil Scilly Isles, a brutal murder is uncovered...
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 distressed, the villagers instinctively turn against the only stranger in their midst, the famous pop star and teenage idol Vince Peters. But Superintendent Wycliffe is not so sure. Slowly, methodically, he begins to dig beneath the calm surface of the community - and soon uncovers a violent undercurrent of fear and guilt...
A bizarre murder in a quiet Cornish village - but Wycliffe's investigation throws up more questions than answers.
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 directed at others in the community, besides the dead woman.
His investigation, however, is frustrated at every turn, and when another horrific murder is committed Wycliffe thinks he knows who the killer is. But can he prove it?