Julius Falconer
Looking for something to read whilst on holiday in
Worcestershire?
Julius Falconer is a writer of detective fiction and creator of
the self-deprecating Detective Inspector Stan Wickfield of the
Worcestershire CID.
Like a number of other fictional detectives, some of whose
exploits have transferred from page to screen, Wickfield inhabits a
heightened reality where imagined happenings take place amongst a
landscape of real and created locations. So you can not only enjoy
a traditional detective story, but retrace the heroes steps in
modern day Worcestershire.
The Inspector Wickfield Novels set in Worcestershire
comprise:
- A Time to Prey
- A Death Twice Avenged
- The Will of Joan Goode 1793
[fictional village of Halton Thoresby]
- The Unexpected Death of Fr Wilfred
[due to be published imminently - Droitwich]
- The Longdon Murders [imminent,
Birtsmorton and Longdon]
- The Founder's Portrait [November
2009, fictional school, SE Worcestershire]
- Mr Carrick is Laid to Rest
[2009]
A Death Twice Avenged, which is set in Evesham in
1970-1971, mentions numerous real streets and locations in the town
(but invents the name of a public house and the name of a café):
High Street, Baptist Chapel in Cowl Street, Poplar Close, the Black
Lion in Rynal Street, The Hodges etc. Like the other novels
in the series, however, it was not written to promote the town or
the county as a tourist destination! That said, its
atmosphere, as well as that of the other novels, is the
rural Worcestershire of forty years ago, where their protagonist,
Stan Wickfield, feels most at home,.
Coming soon :
The Unexpected Death of Fr Wilfred
One February evening in the year 1968, Fr Wilfred, the
parish priest of the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Droitwich,
tumbles out of his confessional, stabbed to death. His older
sister demands the best detective in the force, and Stan Wickfield
is appointed to the case. Unfortunately he cannot identify
either the means or the motive of the murder, much less the
perpetrator.
The Longdon Murders
On the night of a blizzard in January 1963, an elderly
couple who live in a tiny Worcestershire village are summoned to
their daughter's cottage two and a half miles away at Longdon, on
urgent but unspecified business. When eventually they reach
their daughter's cottage, exhausted and worried, they find it warm
but empty. Unable to face the journey back home that night,
they prepare a simple meal for themselves preparatory to retiring
to bed in their daughter's cottage. The following morning,
the concerned neighbours find the couple still sitting at table,
poisoned by a bottle of contaminated wine. A student is found
to have been killed by the same rare poison in his London bed-sit
within days of the Longdon murders. Coincidence? Surely
not! Inspector Wickfield is appointed to find out.
His inquiry is hampered by the repeated appearance of the
couple's son, who is a senior officer in the Canadian force.
Weaving his way round red herrings and dead ends, Wickfield
requires all his ingenuity, prompted by a random crossword clue, to
uncover a devious and intricate plot instigated by a determined
criminal.
Buy your copies online at: www.juliusfalconer.com/buy
