When the body of an amateur flautist, Tony Miller, shot by his own gun, is found on the secluded estate of Lord & Lady Bottrell, it is assumed that he killed himself. But Wycliffe senses there is more to the case than first meets the eye. As he unravels the dead man's last days, another mystery is revealed - the disappearance of a maid from the Bottrell household. Family feuds and illicit relationships are uncovered - and then another body is found.

A Cornish undertaker suddenly disappears. The missing man's body is found, washed up on the rocks, and a murder inquiry begins. A link is suspected between the undertaker's death and a strange local summer ritual, and the mystery ends with a figure strapped to a burning wheel plunging over the cliffs.

A hunt for John Bonetti, an escaped prisoner from HMP Bodmin, takes a dramatic twist after the discovery of a body. Wycliffe and his team race against time to recapture him.

Wycliffe and his team investigate the death of a man found blasted by a shotgun at a Cornish holiday home. They discover evidence of ill-feeling between the dead man and his brother-in-law.

A psychiatrist's wife is murdered in a seemingly unprovoked attack. Wycliffe finds that proving a motive can be harder than catching a killer.