"Wycliffe and the Pea Green Boat," by W. J. Burley, begins in 1953, when a young Cornishman, Morley Tremain, who lives in a working fishing village, is tried and convicted for the murder of his former girlfriend, Alice, although he is innocent of the crime. Capital punishment still exists in 1953 in the UK, which makes his conviction even more awful, both for him and his family. Fast forward 21 years, and Detective Superintendent Wycliffe and his family find themselves in the same small village, now primarily a tourist haven although with a few working boats still, where Wycliffe has gone to recuperate from a long illness. When one of the villagers’ fishing boat blows up, killing the fisherman, Wycliffe’s subordinate feels that something is not quite right about the case and Wycliffe begins to investigate, since he’s right on the spot…. This is the sixth novel in a long-running British series that was also made into a television show in the UK. I enjoy the main character, who is thoughtful and unconventional in his methods, and as a Cornish person myself, I’m especially happy when the landscape becomes almost another character, as happens in this case. I don’t think one needs to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one; in fact, this might be a good one to start with because the general sexism of the times (Burley was writing in the 1960s to 1980s), which can be very off-putting, is relatively muted in this entry. Recommended! ( )

Wycliffe a thoughtful, gruff, compassionate cop. A fairly obvious, but nicely written procedural. ( )