Not Wycliffe's best, I'm afraid. The story premise is interesting enough - six teenagers on a naughty weekend share a dark secret, and then find their lives turned upside down 15 years later when a man's body is found in the dunes. Lots of promise but the story sort of fizzles out and the ending is an anticlimax. Still an OK read, as Wycliffe always is. ( )

The body of a young man missing for 15 years is uncovered in local dunes by unusually strong winds; it doesn’t take Wycliffe long to find out that half a dozen teenagers were having a sleepover at a nearby cottage at the time of the disappearance, but 15 years on, those teens are now pillars of society to one degree or another. And none of them is anxious to stir up old memories…. As with all the books in this series (this is the 19th), "Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery" centers on Wycliffe’s character and methodology, and as such it’s one of the better in the series in my opinion. There’s less sexism than in others, and I think this is actually the first one in the series where a non-white character shows up! Mildly recommended…. ( )

I was familiar with the Wycliffe television series and picked this novel up from a second hand book stall a few years back but have never read it. The title is #19 in the Wycliffe series which eventually had 22 titles, none of which I have read.

Wycliffe, now a Detective Chief Superintendent, is approaching the end of his career, and is finding that it takes a lot to get him enthusiastic. He rarely gets to participate hands on in an investigation but there is something about this case that he finds interesting, especially as it will require a few nights away from home. It is an attractive alternative too to his bending his mind to the exigencies of an imminent restructuring of his section.

When a second murder occurs, Wycliffe has to decide whether the two are connected. He knows there are six people who have lived with the secret surrounding the death of the body found in the dunes for fifteen years. Just the fact that they all see each other frequently is a constant reminder of what they did. And one of them at least is at breaking point.

A very readable but pretty standard police procedural. ( )

Fifteen years ago, the son of a prominent MP disappeared whilst on a coastal walking holiday after his release from a psychiatric hospital. The police had assumed suicide. Now his body has been found buried in the sand dunes, and it's clear his father was right all along -- the young man had been murdered.

A flashback prologue makes it clear to the reader from the start that a group of six teenagers having an illicit weekend were the last people to see Cochrane Wilder alive. The fun in the first half of the book is watching Wycliffe's team slowly piece together the clues that lead them to first one member, then the whole group. But knowing that one or more of the group was almost certainly responsible for Cochran Wilder's death and burial isn't the same thing as being able to prove who did it and why -- not when all six also have relatively innocent reasons for hiding their involvement in that weekend. And then a second murder is committed, making this more than just a cold case to be patiently unravelled...

As usual, a nicely constructed police procedural where the emphasis is on the characters and how they behave. Much of the appeal in this one is in initially knowing a little more information than Wycliffe does, and so being anticipating how the plot will develop -- the amount of extra information you get is nicely played to provide a good balance between the enjoyment of working it out and the enjoyment of being surprised by other developments. I enjoy that style of procedural, so I liked this one a lot. ( )