Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine - W.J. Burley

On the moor west of St Ives lies an artists? colony at the site of a disused mine working. Known as the Guild of Nine, it has been set up by Archer, who tends to run it according to astrological principles, and his wife Lina, a woman with her feet rather more firmly planted on the ground. The newest member, Francine, a beautiful if fey young woman in her mid-20s (her dramatic past is detailed in Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin), has a legacy she is prepared to invest in the colony. Archer is against it ? not least because she is a Scorpio ? while Lina takes a more pragmatic view. Then Francine?s suitability becomes an irrelevance when she is found dead in her bed ? killed by a (deliberately) blocked gas-heater flue.

All the members of the colony naturally come under suspicion, and several of them have very good reasons for not wanting the police poking around in their affairs, particularly not a copper as dogged and hard to fool as Wycliffe. And then, right under his nose, comes another death ?

The hit tv series starring Jack Shepherd has made Wycliffe the Cornish detective a household name, and this latest teasing mystery will delight his many fans.