Algemene kennis

Gangbare naam: Burley, W. J.
Officiële naam: Burley, William John
Geboortedatum: 1914-08-01
Overlijdensdatum: 2002-11-15
Geslacht: male
Nationaliteit: UK
Geboorteplaats: Falmouth, Cornwall, England, UK
Woonplaatsen: Falmouth, Cornwall, England, UK
Okehampton, Devon, England, UK
Crewkerne, Somerset, England, UK
Camborne, Cornwall, England, UK
Opleiding: University of Oxford (Balliol College)
Beroepen: teacher(biology)
business executive
crime novelist
author
Organisaties: Home Guard (WWII)
Institution of British Engineers
Truro Gas Company (technical assistant ∙ assistant manger)
Okehampton Gas Company (manager)
Crime Writers' Association
Korte biografie: W.J. Burley started life as an engineer, and later went to Balliol College, Oxford, to read zoology as a mature student. On leaving Oxford, he went into teaching and, until his retirement, was senior biology master in a large mixed grammar school in Newquay. In 1966, at age 52, he created Inspector Wycliffe, setting the series of books in his native county of Cornwall. They were adapted into a television series in the 1990s. He was working on his 23rd Wycliffe novel, Wycliffe's Last Lap, when he died in 2002.

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Wycliffe and the Guilt-Edged Alibi (The Cornish… door W. J. Burley

One of a series of a police procedural known to me previously only through repeats of an old TV series. These books were reissued in the last decade or so, but the original date of this particular novel was actually 1971 so the lack of mobile phones and other modern technology - the police are typing up all their reports on typewriters, for example - might throw some readers. I wasn't too confused by that as I knew the repeated series had been made around the 1980s. The old date accounts for certain attitudes towards women, and for a nickname given to one character in his boyhood which involves an insulting term that certainly would not be allowed now; slightly odd that the publisher didn't adjust it as the nickname is used only once and in itself is not an important plot point.

The novel is fairly well written and moderately interesting, and is quite a short book printed with large font so a quick read, but I realised 'whodunnit' about half way through. There were some red herrings, mainly around the culprit's motive, in an attempt to throw the reader off, but on the next to last page, the protagonist Wycliffe states exactly the motive I had identified halfway through. So, nice to get it right, but usually crime novels come as a surprise at the end and this didn't. I don't think therefore I will bother with any more of these.… (meer)

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kitsune_reader | 1 andere bespreking | Nov 23, 2023 |

Wycliffe And The Last Rites (The Cornish Detective) door W.J. Burley

psychotic teen kills in church

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ritaer | 1 andere bespreking | Apr 18, 2021 |

Wycliffe and the School Bullies (Wycliffe Series) door W. J. Burley

Enjoyable but fairly light mystery thriller. A teenage girl school trip turns into a bullying incident with repercussions years later. Simple for mr wycliffe to solve and no real tension in the tale but good none the less.

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mick745 | 4 andere besprekingen | Apr 8, 2020 |

Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery door W. J. Burley

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.

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drmaf | 3 andere besprekingen | Jun 21, 2019 |

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