WYCLIFFE AND THE HOUSE OF FEAR

Five years after a boating accident relieved Roger Kemp of his first wife Julia, his second, Bridget, is shot on her way home from an evening at Scrabble. The obvious suspect is Roger, who—everybody from his sister/housekeeper Agnes to his rebellious daughter Isobel agrees—married Bridget just for her money, and who wasn't keen on her plans to preserve his beloved family home, Kellycoryk, by turning it into a retreat for wealthy neurotics. So Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, stopping coincidentally nearby, concentrates his inquiries on Julia's death—only to find Bridget's murder inconveniently failing to fit his theories about Julia. Burley's 26th (Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery, 1994, etc.) is stronger on suspects and atmosphere than on plot, with the ceremonious trappings of the Cornish procedural more dutiful than compelling.