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This week I'm featuring a book called Wycliffe and the Beales by W.J. Burley.

From the book's website:

Washford lies in Hound of the Baskervilles country, a village of granite and slate which looks as though it has grown out of the moor. And close at hand is Ashill House, Regency in origin but Victorian in spirit, the home of the Beales, an odd, reclusive family: old Simon has withdrawn from active life; Nicholas and Gertrude confine themselves respectively to war games and the bottle; young Edward takes long painting expeditions on the moor. Frank Vicary, Gertrude's husband, runs the family business with enough drive to compensate for the failings of all the others. And when there's a murder in the village, there seems no immediate reason to connect it with the Beales.

Indeed, why should anyone want to kill the village lay-about, Bunny Newcombe? Yet someone lay in wait for him in his squalid cottage, and shot him with, surprisingly, a Beretta. The crime soon has the top brass on the spot, including Mr Burley's now well-known Chief Superintendent Wycliffe, who lives not far away, and we are launched upon a fascinating search for skeletons in cupboards— or in archives.

A second murder follows, and then a third, before Wycliffe arrives at the dramatic denouement. Once again Mr Burley provides a masterly plot, with its every part beautifully dove­tailed, and an unusual cast of strange, troubled people.

I only realized after checking out the author's website that he was quite prolific - he was working on his 23rd Wycliffe novel when he died in 2002.