A Jack Haldean Mystery

7 primary works

A Fete Worse Than Death

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 26 June 2007

It's summer 1922: Jack Haldean, crime writer and former Royal Flying Corps pilot, is enjoying the village fete. But then, one of Jack's fellow officers is shot in the fortune teller's tent and another ex-colleague found dead at the local pub. Jack soon realises that the roots of the crime go back to the Battle of the Somme when a group of British soldiers were betrayed, ambushed and killed in the tunnels beneath the Augier Ridge. Once again, he must face a deadly enemy.

Mad About The Boy?

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 1 January 2008

It's the height of summer 1923 and Isabelle's parents are celebrating their Silver Wedding with a ball at their country house, Hesperus, in Sussex. Isabelle has a problem: two men, the glamorous, earnest Malcolm and the quiet, troubled Arthur are in love with her, but worry is soon replaced by tragedy. One of the guests apparently commits suicide at the ball. Jack Haldean, the hero of "A Fete Worse Than Death", thinks it's murder, but everything is thrown into chaos when a group of Russian Revolutionaries become involved in the affair. In a case involving deception, greed, jealousy, kidnap, torture and more murder, Jack faces an agonizing choice on his journey to the truth - a journey which will change Isabelle's life forever.

As If by Magic

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 1 January 2009

George Lassiter is destitute, ill and desperate. Desperate enough to break into the kitchen of a stranger's house for warmth, food and shelter. And there, on that bitterly cold night in 1922, he witnesses a murder, the murder of a beautiful girl. But where's the body? When the police search the house they find nothing. It's vanished, as if by magic. It's nothing but a hallucination born of delirium, say the police. And reluctantly, George is forced to agree. Even his friend and rescuer Jack Haldean believes it's a nightmare but the consequences of that nightmare will plunge Jack into a tangle of theft, lies and obsession as George hunts for his inheritance - and Jack hunts a ruthless killer. Praise for Dolores Gordon-Smith: 'A classic post-war country house mystery with a Christie-like denoument' - Kirkus reviews. 'Recaptures the vitality and insouciance of the Golden Age writers' - Robert Barnard. 'Gordon-Smith's clean-cut hero plays a straight bat...to be read while eating strawberries and listening to a brass band' - "Saga Magazine". 'A spectacular debut...Jack Haldean is a very welcome addition to the annals of crime fiction...Mrs Gordon-Smith is at the beginning of a distinguished career as a crime writer' - "Tangled Web".

Trouble Brewing

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 1 January 2012

A missing man leads Jack Haldean straight into danger . . .

Mark Helston, the rising star of Hunt Coffee Limited, was successful and popular, with plenty of money and everything to live for. Yet at half past seven on the evening of the ninth of January, 1925, he walked out of his Albemarle Street flat and disappeared. Desperate to know what happened to Mark, his uncle, old Mr Hunt, appeals to Jack Haldean. Inspector Bill Rackham of Scotland Yard thinks it's a thankless task. Perhaps, says Jack, but why should Mark Helston vanish? And then Jack finds a body . . .

Blood from a Stone

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 1 January 2013

Haldean investigates the murder of an elderly aristocrat and the disappearance of her only heir, her nephew, along with the disappearance of her valuable sapphires.

After the Exhibition

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 4 March 2014

A church art exhibition turns deadly ...'Art, my dear boy,' said Mr Askern, 'especially sacred art, needs tradition. Tradition is the bedrock of our art ...' He broke off, staring at the woman in front of him. Her face seemed to lose all definition and her skin turned an unnatural shade of putty-coloured grey. 'Art,' she said, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. 'Art! Oh my God, art!' She swayed dangerously. Jack leapt forward, catching her as she fell. Jack Haldean expected Lythewell and Askerns' exhibition of church art in Lyon House, London, to be a sedate affair. After all, Lythewell and Askern, Church Artists, were a respectable, old-fashioned firm, the last people to be associated with mystery, violence and sudden death. Or so it seemed - until after the exhibition ...

The Chessman

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Published 31 August 2015

The message consisted of one neatly typewritten line: I am killing you slowly. You are going to die. The Chessman.

Isabelle Stanton and Sue Castradon always arranged the flowers in the village church on Fridays. But Sue was glad to escape the church that morning. She had rowed over breakfast with her husband Ned, who bitterly resented her association - however fleeting - with the handsome Simon Vardon. Sue didn't think things could get worse - until she opened the cupboard.

When a mutilated corpse is discovered in the sleepy village of Croxton Ferriers, Jack Haldean finds an odd clue at the scene of the crime: a black marble chess knight with crystal eyes. Is murder just a game? It could be - to a killer who calls himself The Chessman.