Keyhole Crime S.
3 total works
Wycliffe tackles a case which reaches back down the generations ...
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 circumstantial evidence against him. So Cedric is arrested.
But Chief Superintendent Wycliffe has a strong sense that something about the case just doesn't fit. As he quietly continues his investigations a confusing picture emerges. Twenty years ago Cedric's cousin was convicted of strangling his girlfriend and served fourteen years of a commuted death sentence.
While the wheels of justice begin to grind Wycliffe searches for a link between past and present ?
An ancient legend, an all-too modern murder, and Chief Superintendent Wycliffe must find the link between them ...
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, has disappeared - and it seems all too likely that his corpse has gone the way of the historic 'scapegoat'.
As Chief Superintendent Wycliffe begins to investigate, more and more unpleasant facts emerge until he is left with an incredible, and seemingly impossible, solution . . .