From the dust jacket:
When Cedric Tremain is charged with murdering his father, by booby-trapping his fishing boat, all the locals are agreed that this wouldn't be his sort of crime. But the case against him is strong: he has the motive, the opportunity, the know-how; and there's some hard circumstantial evidence against him. So he is arrested.

But there are things about the case which our old friend Chief Superintendent Wycliffe, Mr Burley's highly individual West Country policeman, doesn't like. So he keeps nosing around. And his investigations lead him into the details of another murder case, one that is now twenty years old. In that case, Cedric's cousin Morley was convicted of strangling his girl friend in a fit of jealous passion, and served fourteen years of a commuted death sentence.

Is it possible that there is some relationship between the two cases, and if so what? As Wycliffe, that most unorthodox of detectives, probes into the present and the past, our own suspicions and assumptions are being constantly challenged.

This is a most absorbing tale, complex as a puzzle, rich in characterisation, and with Superintendent Wycliffe continuing to reveal new facets of his strange personality.

From the back cover (Corgi 1993 reprint):

Tragedy seemed to stalk the Tremain family. Sidney Tremain had hanged himself for no obvious reason.

His son, Morley, had had the misfortune to fall in love with a girl who slept around - and get convicted of killing her. And now Cedric Tremain was charged with murdering his wealthy father by blowing up his boat.

Chief Superintendent Wycliffe knew something was wrong, knew that the apparently cut and dried case wasn't what it appeared to be. Carefully he cast his bait - and waited for the real killer to surface.

Number of pages before Wycliffe appears: 88

Location: Mevagissey but not so identified by the author. Mevagissey reappears as a setting in Wycliffe and the Tangled Web, published 13 years later.

First recorded as a hamlet in 1313, the town of St Meva and St Issey became a major fishing village, a tradition that has continued to the present day. A map and information leaflet produced by the Mevagissey Chamber of Commerce is available from the local Tourist Information Centre.

© Paul Clark

The crowded harbour is one of the most photographed sights in Cornwall and colourful depictions by contemporary Cornish artists can be found at nearby Cofro, a bright and cheerful high-quality coffee shop that also sells canvasses, prints and other forms of art (www.cofro.co.uk).

© Paul Clark

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