Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy

For all the writers out there who are getting a late start in life, the author of my FFB pick for today should be an inspiration. W.J. Burley started his career as an engineer before going back to college to study zoology and becoming head of the biology department at Newquay School in Cornwall. But he'd always wanted to write, and finally saw his first novel published when he was 51.

He said his intention was "to write interesting detective fiction which did not exploit extreme forms of violence or sex and was relatively free of four-letter words. In doing this I thought I might help fill a gap that was left in the market by the gradual disappearance of the traditional whodunnit." His first effort, Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy, was published in 1968, but it's clear Burley continued in the traditions of the Golden Age of detective fiction from the decades preceding.

The Wycliffe of the title is Detective Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, a man who admits he'd never really felt like a policeman and often wondered why he joined, hating discipline, regimentation, and sometimes order—although he hates violence more. He also loses confidence in himself at the beginning of a case, "avoiding his subordinates for fear of earning their mute criticism, and, forced into their company, he became aggressively dictatorial. Those who knew him shrugged. 'He'll be all right when he's run in.'"

Many of the Golden Age hallmarks are present in the novel: fair play, a rural country setting, a whodunnit-style murder, a small, closed group of suspects and the denouement at the end with Wycliffe gathering the prime suspects together. True to Burley's philosophy, there are no four-letter words and no extreme violence or sex, although sex does play a starring role in the form of the titular victim, Pussy Wells, both by her lifestyle and the double entendre of her name.

The book opens with Wycliffe examining the body of Wells, an attractive 26-year-old who writes crossword puzzles for a living. She's been shot, and only one of her shoes and stockings removed, revealing a deformed foot with three toes. It doesn't take long in the investigation for Wycliffe to discover that Wells was a very complicated and troubled young woman, intelligent but manipulative and cruel. She was also quite promiscuous, using men as her puppets, thereby creating a ready pool of suspects in the small village of Kergwyns. As Wycliffe digs deeper, he links another murder, an attempted murder and an alleged suicide to Pussy's death, all leading to the ultimate resolution and one which leaves "a deeper impression on the superintendent than any in his experience."

Burley went on to publish another seventeen Wycliffe books, as well as six other books including one sci-fi title that Martin Edwards has mentioned in his blog (where he aptly refers to Wycliffe as the "English Simenon").  In 1993, one of the Wycliffe stories was made into a television pilot starring Jack Shepherd, and proved successful enough to inspire 37 episodes over the next five years. Unfortunately, as Edwards notes, people tend to remember Shepherd and his portrayal of Wycliffe, yet have largely forgotten W.J. Burley.

Mystery Melange

We had some sad news this week at the passing of Scottish crime author Peter May at the age of 74. He wife posted a tribute on Facebook from May's publisher and dear friend, Jon Riley, "Although he had announced his retirement, which he was looking forward to sharing with his beloved wife, the writer Janice Hally, May found there was one more novel in him, and he delivered Island of the Dead in July this year. He was preparing for a farewell tour of Scotland and Lewis to coincide with publication in January 2027. Peter May was not only one of the best writers of crime fiction we had, but he inspired enormous affection in his readers and in those lucky enough to work with him. His kindness, generosity and largeness of spirit, loyalty, engagement with life, and the world, made him a much-loved,as well as much- admired figure. He is irreplaceable." More tributes are pouring in, including these from the BBC, The Telegraph, and The Scotsman.


Back in August, news dropped that Wildside Press and publisher John Betancourt were closing down the Black Cat Weekly crime fiction magazine. But this week, Level Best Books announced it's acquiring the magazine and relaunching it as Black Cat Mysteries, a brand-new monthly, digital magazine dedicated to mystery, suspense, and crime fiction. Editors say there will be a new issue every month, arriving on the 13th, with the inaugural issue (appropriately) on Friday, November 13th. Every issue pairs original short stories from today's mystery and crime writers with rediscovered classics from the pulp era, alongside author interviews, industry news, and a recurring feature on the world of mystery writing; the first issue digs into why short stories mattered so much to the genre's Golden Age authors, and why they still do.


Michael Bracken is heading up a free online event focused on writing short crime fiction on Saturday, October 10. Sponsored Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime, this online Zoom presentation will feature panels on "Some Loose Thoughts on Tight Structures," "Short Stories as Building Blocks," and insights from various magazine editors about what they're looking for.


Noir at the Bar heads to the City of Angels on October 11. Eric Beetner takes on hosting duties, with authors scheduled to read from their works including Kasey Lansdale, Luke Goebel, James Queally, Rochelle Staab, Gary Phillips, Dete Meserve, and Lawrence Allen. The venue is the Glen Arden Club in the LA suburb of Glendale.


The new exhibition, “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery,” opens next month at the British Library in London, and includes never-before-seen artifacts from the life of literature’s “Queen of Crime.” The exhibition will take visitors back to Christie’s childhood and explore her journey to becoming an iconic writer, while celebrating how adaptations of her novels for stage and screen continue to enthrall audiences today, over 50 years after her death. Like the works of the novelist it honors, the exhibition will be scattered with “clues” and “Easter eggs” and also feature interviews with fans, journalists and other writers, exploring Christie’s influence on the crime genre. “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery” will be on view at the British Library from October 30, 2026, through June 20, 2027.


The latest issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Fall 2026) is devoted to "Reappraising James Ellroy," including such articles as "The Conspiratorial Logic of James Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy" and "Ellroy and Macdonald." The publication is under the direction of Managing Editor Elizabeth Foxwell, with guest editors Nathan Ashman (U of East Anglia, UK) and Steven Powell (U of Liverpool, UK).. (HT to The Bunburyist)


Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats has news of Short Mystery Fiction Society Mystery Magazine issue #1, Black Cat Weekly #265, September Smoke, the latest installment in the Declan Shaw Mystery series via Shotgun Honey books, and the Punk Noir FAFO series.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Stop" by F.I. Goldhaber.


In the Q&A roundup, Allison Keeton over at the Maine Crime Writers blog interviewed Dennis Pierce about his debut novel, Swinging for Power; Tracy Maton applied the Page 69 Test to The Artful Anna Harris, her debut psychological thriller; the Alliance of Independent Authors' Howard Lovy chatted with Luke Richardson a former journalist, nightclub DJ, and English teacher who turned his love of travel and adventure into writing thrillers; and Writers Who Kill's Grace Topping interviewed Carol Pouilot about her new mystery that involves time-traveling sleuths, Murder at the Moulin Rouge.

Bookstore Signing-Palooza for October

For those readers who still love print books, here are some mystery bookstore signings coming up in October where you can still see some of your favorite authors in person. (Note that some of these stores also host virtual events if you're unable to travel, so you can check with the bookstores' events calendars for more information.)

Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA:   Eriq La Salle; Adam Plantinga and Barry Eisler

Book People, Austin, TX:  Neal Stephenson; Dusti Bowling

Mysterious Bookshop, New York City:  Teresa Dovalpage; Lindsay Faye; Alexander McCall Smith; Jasper Fforde; Jonathan Ames; Mike Trigg; Jenna Helwig; Kasey Lansdale

Once Upon a Crime Books, Minneapolis, MN:  James Arlen Anderson 

One More Page, Arlington, VA:  Lindsay Faye

Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, AZ:   Brian Freeman; Dusti Bowling; Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale; Tasha Alexander and Andrew Child; Mariah Fredericks; Allison Brennan, Jennifer Graeser, and Paige Shelton; Michael Connelly; Andrew Klavan

Politics & Prose, Washington, DC: John Grisham and David Baldacci;

Powell’s, Portland, OR: Jasper Fforde; Neal Stephenson; Lindsay Faye

Tattered Cover, New York, NY:  Ryan Burruss; Marc Cameron; Lynn Horton; Rob Samborn

Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA:  Trish Lundy; John Stephens; Gary Phillips and DC Frost;

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:


THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Sony Pictures won a bidding war for distribution rights to the thriller, The Surgeon, starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh plays an expert surgeon who is abducted and forced to operate on a mysterious patient, only to turn 35 years of surgical expertise against her captors and outwit them in a fight for survival. The project is directed by Dr. Roshan Sethi and also stars Martin Freeman, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov and Joseph Mydell.  


Heat 2 is eyeing Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) to play Kelso, a character originated by the late Tom Noonan in Michael Mann’s 1995 original film. Heat 2 is both a sequel to the 1995 film and an adaptation of the novel by Mann and Meg Gardiner that was published by HarperCollins in 2022. The project also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, who will play thief Chris Shiherlis (originally played by Val Kilmer); Christian Bale, who will play Vincent Hanna, the dogged LAPD Robbery Homicide detective (originally played by Al Pacino); and Stephen Graham, who will play thief Neil McCauley (originally played by Robert De Niro). Additionally, Odessa Young will play Charlene (originally played by Ashley Judd) and newcomer María Cid is in talks to play Gabi (a new character for the sequel).


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Hulu is developing The Parsifal Mosaic, a drama series based on Robert Ludlum’s bestselling novel, starring and executive produced by Sam Worthington and Sofia Carson. Written by Wes Tooke, the story follows Michael Havelock (Worthington), who is ready to get out of the game after years of dangerous field work for the CIA—until he learns that his partner Jenna Karas (Carson), secretly the love of his life, has betrayed him, which leads to the unraveling of a powerful conspiracy that reaches around the globe.


Sky has found its Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander for the network’s upcoming TV adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. David Oyelowo (Silo) and rising star Viola Prettejohn (The Crown) will play the leads in the adaptation, which comes fifteen years after the movies starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Sky’s long-gestating TV version of the first in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy brings the story to the present day. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follows cancelled star journalist Blomkvist and uncompromising hacker Salander as they investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, who vanished more than three decades ago from the secluded island home of one of Sweden’s most powerful industrial dynasties. As they delve deeper into the Vanger family’s buried past, their investigation draws them closer to a chilling threat unfolding dangerously close to them in the present.  


Zazie Beetz (Joker), Ben Foster (Emancipation), Stella Baker (Scarpetta), and John Hoogenakker (One Battle After Anothew) have been added as recurring cast members of the new Paramount+ series, Discretion. They join the previously announced lead cast of Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Josh Lucas, Colton Ryan, and Stephan James. Production is currently underway with an expected premiere in 2027. The eight-episode limited series, adapted from bestselling author Chandler Baker’s short story, Discretion is a legal thriller about a summer associate, Lenny (Fanning), at a prestigious Dallas law firm who uncovers a web of NDAs masking a dark truth. When she realizes she signed the same agreement, her discoveries put her in the crosshairs of the firm’s most powerful female partner, Sharon (Kidman)—upending their mentor-protégé dynamic and raising the question: who gets to keep secrets, and at what cost?


Oscar winners Susan Sarandon and Olivia Colman have joined Paddy Considine, America Ferrera, Alex Hassell, and Kit Harington in the thriller series, Army of Shadows, which is now filming in Paris and London. Inspired by Jean Pierre Melville’s 1969 film and Joseph Kessel’s book, the drama follows the emergence of the French Resistance to the Nazi Occupation of France during World War II and shows how resistance takes shape in an occupied Great Britain. Out of the shadows emerges a former soldier known only as Berry, who starts building a secret resistance network. An unlikely group starts to coalesce around him – people who’ve decided they can’t look away any longer: a soldier, a student, a radiographer, a journalist. Ordinary people, with ordinary lives, making an extraordinary and irreversible choice. Rounding out the ensemble cast are Leila Farzad, Luther Ford, Amara Okereke, Patrick O’Kane, Anjli Mohindra, Ed Ashley, and Zoë, Telford.


The release of The Savant is back on, a year after Apple TV put the thriller starring Jessica Chastain on hold three days before it was slated to premiere on Sept. 26, 2025, following the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. The Savant follows an undercover investigator known as “The Savant” (Chastain), who infiltrates online hate groups to stop domestic extremists before they act. The cast also includes Cole Doman, Jordana Spiro, Trinity Lee Shirley, Toussaint Francois Battiste, Michael Patrick Thornton, Pablo Schreiber, and James Badge Dale. The exact premiere date hasn't been set, but it's scheduled for some time in spring of 2027.


Jack Ryan showrunner, Steven Kane, is developing ABC’s Dive with 20th Television, and Dwayne Johnson, and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks company. The show is set in New Orleans and follows an elite team of police divers and investigators who solve crimes that begin where the surface ends.

Netflix is teaming with Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley) and Abi Morgan (The Split) in the dark thriller, Witch Hunt. Lancashire plays August Howell, a descendant of the "Witch of Cambridge." Released after 30 years in prison for drowning her three young daughters, she comes home to a community that does not want her back. But when concern grows that her return has triggered a modern-day witch hunt in the university town, the police must turn to August’s last surviving daughter, Professor Wren Howell, to help find the killer.


Diane Lane has joined the cast of Hulu‘s upcoming thriller limited series, Victoria, joining previously announced Li Jun Li. Created and written by Hall (I Am Not Okay with This), and set in the cutthroat world of San Francisco’s elite, Victoria follows a brilliant con artist who finds herself in a dark web of power and luxury while in the crosshairs of a seductive killer who knows her secrets.  


In a post on social media, Mariska Hargitay (Benson) teased the return of her former partner, Detective Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni, to Law & Order: SVU as the show marks its milestone 600th episode, scheduled to air on November 12. Meloni last reprised his role as Detective Elliot Stabler in the Season 27 premiere episode of SVU titled "In the Wind," which aired on September 25, 2025. Meloni’s spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime was canceled in April after a five-season run.


MASTERPIECE Mystery! released a trailer for Maigret's second season, premiering Sunday, October 18th at 9pm ET. In Season 2, Jules Maigret (Benjamin Wainwright) faces his greatest test yet. As crimes grip Paris, Maigret finds himself fighting on two fronts: hunting dangerous killers while defending his unorthodox methods against internal politics, betrayal, and a department waiting for his luck to run out. The series is based on the novels by author Georges Simenon.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Sara Paretsky chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her new spy thriller Bad Company, being a Chicago Pitbull, and falling out of bed in Paris as inspiration for a novel.


On the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast, John Charles was in conversation with Kate Mooney about new latest book, The Woman of the House.


Debbi Mack's latest guest on the Crime Cafe podcast was Phil Halton, author of nonfiction and crime fiction titles including Red Warning.


On the Spybrary podcast, Tim Shipman spoke with David McCloskey about the origins of London Station, his fifth novel, and the real-world intelligence relationship that helped him build its fictional conflict.


Sisters in Crime spoke with A. W. Powers, author of the Psychic Guardian Angel series, the Psychic Sidekick series, the standalone thriller Properly Dead, and more.


House of Mystery Radio welcomed Alice Fitzpatrick to discuss her novel, A Dark Death, set in a sleepy Welsh island where archaeologists discover a body ritualistically laid out in their trench.


Andrew Bridgeman, author of the Emma Noble thriller series, joined Kathleen Antrim and DP Lyle on the Outliers Podcast.

Sunday Music Treat

Well, it certainly doesn't feel like autumn in these parts, but perhaps this piece will get you in the mood just in time for the Vernal Equinox, which took place this past Thursday, September 22. It's the first movement of the "Autumn" concerto from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, featuring violinist Joshua Bell with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields:

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Hanging Doll Murder

It's amazing that Roger Ormerod (1920-2005), a native of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, managed to end up as writer, given his background. Born in 1920, he worked various jobs, including postal worker, shop loader in an engineering factory, clerk in county court, inspector for Department of Social Security, and listed his hobbies as amateur tailoring, wine making, stereo photography, and high fidelity.

But somehow in the middle of that, he wrote some 22 standalone crime novels; four novels in a series featuring Philipa Lowe and Oliver Simpson; 16 books in a series featuring private detective David Mallin; and 11 in his Richard and Amelia Patton series, a total of 53 books, all penned between 1974 and 1998.

His interest in crime fiction began with Sherlock Holmes stories in Savoy magazines he discovered at his grandmother's house which started him on his path to writing, which went basically nowhere...until what he called a "freak acceptance" of his first TV play as his first sale, which landed an agent who said he wrote better novels. The first of those, Time to Kill, featuring P.I. David Mallin, was published when Ormerod was 54. He once said about his writing philosophy: "I am principally interested in human motivation in respect of crimes, rather than the mechanics of them. My main intention is to entertain rather than to instruct."

Ormerod's creation Detective Inspector Richard Patton is known as a maverick and a pain in the neck by his superiors, who flouts regulations and won't follow orders, which is why they're relieved when he decides to take early retirement. At the start of The Hanging Doll Murder (published in the UK as Face Value), Patton is due to retire in three days. But he's surprisingly ambivalent about the move, especially when the sadistic Clive Kendall, a child-rapist whom he'd jailed years before, is released from prison. Retirement seems even less likely when Patton faces yet another loose end relating to the Kendall case, the husband of Amelia Trowbridge, who's gone missing and whose burned-out car is discovered in a ravine. As Patton navigates around the clues, including a hanging doll with a goatee beard, the case becomes even more personal when he finds himself getting too close to the prime suspect—Amelia.

Trevor Royle, in the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, summarized Ormerod's writing style as having a "nonchalance . . . reminiscent at times of Raymond Chandler. As well as realism of background, Ormerod's writing is notable for its terse and natural dialogue and for an ability to switch the direction of the narrative." Ormerod has also received positive reviews for his characterizations and insights into complex human relationships and motivations, as in this excerpt, musings from Patton:

That Sunday had been my last rest-day in harness, so I'd decided to treat it as a trial run for all my glorious days of freedom ahead. I'd rolled out of bed. A new day. Tra-la! But it hadn't lasted long. After breakfast, the grey day had seemed insupportable indoors, and all I had to fall back on was the same old routine. It had therefore occurred to me to drive out into the country and dicker around with a couple of minor issues. But Brason had to go and upset the equilibrium by offering interest, and Ted Clayton had presented a clear line of action I wasn't going to be in a position to carry through. It left me tense, my mind racing, and staring out at the wind-blown drifts of heavier flakes past my window. Like my life, I thought in disgust, colourless and insubstantial, and blowing past.

One criticism of Ormerod's work may be what Reginald Hill of Books & Bookmen called an unnecessary twisting and twisting at the tail of Face Value "till the whole thing was bent out of shape." In fact, Ormerod is known for his labyrinthine plots and deep barrel of clues, and by the time he does wind down the denouement, there might be a touch of "it's about time," but all in all, The Hanging Doll Murder is a solid procedural with a pinch of psychological and suspense genres thrown in. Trevor Royle wasn't far off in calling Ormerod "one of Britain's best traditional crime writers."