Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin (Wycliffe Series) [Paperback]

W. J. Burley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wycliffe Series | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On Christmas Eve, after appearing in the parish play as the Virgin Mary, Francine Lemarque disappears. Fortunately, Chief Supt. of Scotland Yard Charles Wycliffe is in the audience as a holiday guest of the Bishop family, local aristocrats. When he decides to help find the girl, he instead discovers her mother dead and her father (recently released from prison) missing. When Francine returns and her father turns up dead, suspicion is thrown on a wide range of characters. Is the murderer the neighborhood artist, who's been sleeping with half the women in town? Or the ambitious M.P. married into the aristocracy? Or perhaps Wycliffe's friend, a bachelor lawyer who collects flies as a hobby? Burley does a fine job of bringing Wycliffe to life, and flashes of beauty occasionally pierce his descriptions of the Cornish countryside and coast, the setting for this novel. But the plot is formulaic and has a tendency to plod, producing a mystery that the attentive reader will solve before Wycliffe catches on. This is the fourth Wycliffe novel Burley has written, and the second this year. One hopes that in the future, the author works out more interesting and difficult murder puzzles for his likable inspector. (November
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

W.J. Burley lived near Newquay in Cornwall, and was a schoolmaster until he retired to concentrate on his writing. His many Wycliffe books include, most recently, Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine. He died in 2002.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752849336
• ISBN-13: 978-0752849331
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,073,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wycliffe-ish to the End, June 29, 2006

By 

Phyllis Smith (Way Out West) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin (Wycliffe Series) (Paperback)

Wycliffe is an old friend and the story is taut to the every end. Burley's books are like an old shoe and easily read on vacation, on a rainy evening or just because you want a good read. But I don't take them to the doctor's office. I'm much too absorbed in them to put them down.