W.J. Burley Books In Order

Henry Pym Books In Publication Order

A Taste of Power (1974)
Death in Willow Pattern (1983)

Wycliffe Books In Publication Order

Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy (1968)
Wycliffe and How to Kill a Cat (1970)
Wycliffe and the Guilt Edged Alibi (1971)
Wycliffe and Death in a Salubrious Place (1973)
Wycliffe and Death in Stanley Street (1974)
Wycliffe and the Pea Green Boat (1975)
Wycliffe And The Schoolgirls (1976)
Wycliffe and the School Bullies (1976)
Wycliffe and the Scapegoat (1978)
Wycliffe in Paul’s Court (1980)
Wycliffe’s Wild Goose Chase (1982)
Wycliffe and the Beales (1983)
Wycliffe and the Four Jacks (1985)
Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin (1986)
Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue (1987)
Wycliffe And The Tangled Web (1988)
Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death (1990)
Wycliffe and the Dead Flautist (1991)
Wycliffe and the Last Rites (1992)
Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery (1994)
Wycliffe and the House of Fear (1995)
Wycliffe and the Redhead (1997)
Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine (2000)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

The Schoolmaster (1977)
The 6th Day (1978)
Charles and Elizabeth (1979)
The House of Care (1981)

Henry Pym Book Covers

Wycliffe Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

W.J. Burley Books Overview

Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy

The peace of the village of Kergwyns has been shattered by a bizarre murder. A young woman has been shot. The only thing taken from a scene is the shoe and stocking from her left leg exposing her deformed foot. Wycliffe uncovers evidence of an unhappy woman who routinely manipulated the men in her life. As half the men in the village have been known to visit her, and most have reason to lie about it, finding the murderer will not be easy. Wycliffe’s task is complicated by the discovery of some clues in the form of crossword puzzles left by the victim herself. If Pussy Welles knew she was going to die, why did she make no effort to save herself?

Wycliffe and How to Kill a Cat

The girl was young, her auburn hair arranged on the pillow. Wycliffe could almost believe she was asleep that is, until he saw her face. She had been strangled, her face brutally smashed but after death, not before. She lay in a seedy hotel room down by the docks, but her luggage, her clothes, and her make up all suggested she had more class than her surroundings. Superintendent Wycliffe was officially on holiday, but the case fascinated him. Who was the girl? Why was she lying naked in a shabby hotel room? As Wycliffe begins to investigate, he finds there are too many suspects, too many motives and too many lies

Wycliffe and the Guilt Edged Alibi

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’s faced with a number of questions: Who would want to kill the beautiful Mrs. Bryce? Was it a lover s quarrel? Or a long held resentment that 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 remorse.

Wycliffe and Death in a Salubrious Place

There was no doubt at all that the girl was dead. The front of her skull and her facial bones had been shattered like the shell of an egg. Even more shocking was the setting of the murder an idyllic corner of the Scilly Isles, where violent crime is almost unknown. Angry and distressed, the villagers instinctively turn against the only stranger in their midst, teenage pop idol Vince Peters. But Superintendent Wycliffe has his doubts. Slowly, methodically, he begins to dig beneath the calm surface of the community and soon uncovers a violent undercurrent of fear.

Wycliffe and Death in Stanley Street

In a sprawling West Country port lies the insalubrious Stanley Street, a dubious cul de sac just off the busy main road. And when a prostitute is found naked and strangled in her bed there, Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is called in to investigate. But things aren t quite as straightforward as they seem. The victim, Lily Painter, is the kind of girl who liked Beethoven and had plenty of fine qualifications to her name. The more Wycliffe investigates, the more surprises he uncovers. But it takes a dangerous arson attack and a second murder before the solution to this diabolical puzzle can be found.

Wycliffe and the Pea Green Boat

When Cedric Tremain is charged with murdering his father by boobytrapping his fishing boat, all the locals agree 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 hard circumstantial evidence. Cedric is soon arrested, but Chief Superintendent Wycliffe has a strong sense that something about the case just doesn’t fit. As he quietly continues his investigation, a confusing picture emerges. Twenty years ago, Cedric’s cousin was convicted of strangling his girlfriend and served 14 years of a commuted death sentence. When the wheels of justice begin to grind, Wycliffe must search for a link between past and present.

Wycliffe And The Schoolgirls

Two very different young women have been murdered within the same week. One was a nightclub singer, the other a nurse, but both were strangled in their own homes in strangely efficient, remarkably similar attacks. The press is quick to assume there’s a psychopath on the loose, but Detective Chief Superintendent Wycliffe suspects the truth may be somewhat more complex. When another attack is aborted for no apparent reason, Wycliffe is certain that this is no random spate of murders. But with his superiors and the media uninterested in his theories, Wycliffe knows he will have to work alone to find the killer. As he searches for a link between the victims, his investigations take him back in time to a school trip, an isolated hostel, and a cruel joke on a lonely student.

Wycliffe and the School Bullies

Wycliffe and the Scapegoat

Each year at Halloween, high on the Cornish cliffs, a life size effigy of a man is strapped to a blazing wheel and run into the sea a re enactment of a hideous ancient legend of human sacrifice. So when Jonathan Riddle, a respected local builder and undertaker, disappears, it seems all too likely that his corpse has gone the way of the historic scapegoat. As Wycliffe begins to investigate Riddle’s family life, more and more unpleasant facts begin to emerge, until eventually he s left with an incredible, seemingly impossible, solution.

Wycliffe in Paul’s Court

Paul’s Court is a quiet corner in the heart of the city, an oasis of peace and safety until the night when there are two violent deaths. Willy Goppel, a German migr , is found hanging in his home; and fifteen year old Yvette Cole, who may or may not have lived up to her wild reputation, is discovered strangled and thrown half naked over the churchyard hedge. Chief Superintendent Wycliffe has the aid of a shrewd Sergeant Kersey, but they still find this a difficult case to crack. As Wycliffe and Kersey dig deeper, they gradually untangle a complex network of secrets in the quiet of Paul s Court.

Wycliffe’s Wild Goose Chase

Wycliffe’s home overlooks a peaceful West Country estuary but even in his own sanctuary, he can’t get away from crime. While taking a morning walk along the shore, he comes upon a service revolver with one recently fired chamber. In recent years, Wycliffe has often regretted the fact that his rank cuts him off from the early stages of an investigation but here he’s in from the very start. The case takes Wycliffe into the world of art theft and crooked dealers, to a suicide that might be a murder, and a search for a missing yacht. As the investigation intensifies, Wycliffe begins to wonder exactly where all the clues are leading…

Wycliffe and the Beales

Deep in Hound of the Baskervilles country lies Washford, a village that looks as if it has grown out of the moor itself. Close by is Ashill House, home of the Beales, an odd and reclusive family. Old Simon has withdrawn from active life, Nicholas and Gertrude confine themselves to war games and the bottle, young Edward paints on the moor. Only Gertrude’s husband, Frank, has enough drive to maintain the family business. When the village lay about is murdered, there s no reason to connect the crime with the Beales until Wycliffe goes in search of skeletons.

Wycliffe and the Four Jacks

Writer David Cleeve lived exactly the way a best selling novelist should live in an opulent house in a beautiful corner of Cornwall. But beneath the successful fa ade was a private nightmare. For at regular intervals, a sinister 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, there was a murder. Wycliffe is in the area on holiday, but far from relaxing, he finds himself drawn into the case. Before long, there’s more than just a single mystery to solve. As Wycliffe investigates, he uncovers a double murder, arson, and a series of crimes that stretch back through the years.

Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin

Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is not looking forward to Christmas. With his wife away in Kenya, he rashly accepts an invitation from Penzance lawyer Ernest Bishop to spend a few days at the Bishops cliff top home. When Wycliffe arrives, the weather is bleak, the house is remote, and the welcome from the family no more than polite. Then, on Christmas Eve, a young girl goes missing after playing the part of the Virgin in the local nativity play. It’s left to Wycliffe to initiate a search but what begins as a missing person case soon turns into a major criminal investigation.

Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue

Gifford Tate, well known Falmouth painter, and Edwin Garland, a local businessman, had been inseparable companions until Tate’s death several years ago. Now his paintings are much in demand, and each year, a work not previously shown is sold at a London gallery. When Garland dies of a heart attack, no one is suspicious until the evening of the funeral, when his son is shot dead and Wycliffe is faced with a seemingly motiveless killing. Then another relative disappears, and the most promising clue is an artists pigment called Winsor Blue. Wycliffe finally identifies the motive behind the crimes but is it too late to prevent another death?

Wycliffe And The Tangled Web

A beautiful schoolgirl goes missing from a Cornish village on the day she tells her boyfriend and sister that she’s pregnant. The possibility that she s been raped or murdered or both grows with every passing hour, and Wycliffe is brought in on the case. The investigation reveals a complex network of family intrigue centered on the girl; and then Wycliffe finds a body but not the one he expects. Have there been two murders? As Wycliffe digs deeper, he soon realizes that just beneath the mundane surface of the community lies a web of hatred and resentment a web he will have to untangle if he s to find the key to the mystery.

Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death

When Matthew Glynn, a respectable bookseller, is found bludgeoned and strangled, Wycliffe is mystified. Why would anyone want to kill him, and in such a brutal manner? But a look at Glynn’s background reveals family tensions. Alfred Glynn, an eccentric recluse, has held a grudge against his brother for years, and the older brother, Maurice, argued bitterly with Matthew over the sale of family land. Add to this a discontented son, valuable documents in the bookseller s safe, and the mysterious, still unexplained disappearance of Matthew s wife years earlier, and Wycliffe is facing one of the most impenetrable cases of his career.

Wycliffe and the Dead Flautist

On the peaceful and secluded estate of Lord and Lady Bottrel, 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 to investigate. As Wycliffe begins to unravel the last days of the dead man, another mystery is revealed: the disappearance of Lizzie Biddick, a pretty young girl who worked for the Bottrell family as a maid. Gradually, bitter family feuds and illicit relationships are uncovered and then another body shatters the pastoral serenity of the Cornish estate for ever…

Wycliffe and the Last Rites

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?

Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery

Cochran Wilder disappeared 15 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 and it is clear that he was murdered. Detective Superintendent Wycliffe suspects the involvement of six people, now well established figures in the community, who at the time had been spending an illicit weekend at a chalet in the area. All are disturbed by Wycliffe’s interest and by a series of threatening anonymous communications. But when a second murder is committed, the investigation takes on a whole new urgency.

Wycliffe and the House of Fear

The Kemps, a Cornish Catholic family, have held on to their hometown of Kellycoryk for almost 500 years, but it is beginning to look as though the present century will be their last. Roger, head of the shrinking clan, is desperate to save the family’s house and land. His second marriage to the shrewd and tough businesswoman Bridget seemingly offers a way out. But Bridget, prosperous head of her own company, has plans of her own taking Kellycoryk over for development. Then suddenly, Bridget disappears, and old memories begin to be raked over. Hadn’t Julia, Roger’s first wife also a wealthy woman disappeared mysteriously as well, presumably in a boating accident? Did Roger, his sister, and his disturbed children know more about the past than had ever been revealed? Wycliffe, who is supposed to be recuperating from an illness at home, finds the Kemps’ case too intriguing to ignore.

Wycliffe and the Redhead

Simon Meagor is a lonely middle aged man. With a broken marriage behind him, his life centers solely on his antiquarian bookshop. Still haunted by the memory of a suicide he feels responsible for, Simon’s horror only multiplies when Morwenna, the daughter of that man who committed suicide, applies for a job in his shop. Mesmerized by her, Simon finds himself agreeing to her employment. Cleverly, over a period of time, Morwenna manipulates herself into his work, his life, and finally into his room above the shop. And then she disappears. When her body is discovered in a flooded quarry, suicide is considered since Morwenna was suffering from a fatal disease. Inevitably, however, suspicion falls on Simon Meagor. Wycliffe becomes intrigued and increasingly disturbed by this new and shocking case, which grows more and more complicated as he delves even deeper into a dark and murky past.

Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine

On the moor west of St. Ives, at the site of a disused mine, lies an artists colony. Known as the Guild of Nine, it was set up by Archer, who runs it according to astrological principles, and his wife Lina, a woman with her feet rather more firmly on the ground. The newest member, a beautiful young woman named Francine, has a legacy she wants to invest in the colony. Archer isn t sure not least because she is a Scorpio; Lina, as always, takes a more pragmatic view. But then Francine is found dead in her bed, asphyxiated by a deliberately blocked gas heater. Chief Superintendent Wycliffe investigates and soon discovers that several members of the colony have good reasons for not wanting the police involved. Then, right under Wycliffe’s nose, comes another death.