After the Exhibition

Starred review from May 19, 2014
In Gordon-Smith’s excellent eighth mystery set in 1920s England (after 2013’s Blood from a Stone), Betty Wingate, the impoverished daughter of a solicitor, tells amateur detective Jack Haldean of a horrific encounter. One night, while walking home in Whimbrell Heath, a village about an hour south of London by train, Betty stopped by the cottage of Carlotta Bianchi, a woman of dubious reputation. As soon as Betty spotted Carlotta’s strangled corpse on the sofa, someone chloroformed her from behind; when she came to, the body was gone. Everyone, including Betty’s love interest, has dismissed her story as a fantasy. She hopes that Jack can vindicate her, with the aid of his Scotland Yard friend, Chief Insp. Bill Rackham. The charming and astute Jack, who finds himself drawn to Betty, soon discovers some trace evidence corroborating her story. The crafty plot ends up including multiple murders. Fans of lighthearted puckish sleuths like Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion will enjoy this outing.

June 11, 2012
At the outset of Gordon-Smith’s absorbing sixth Jack Haldean mystery (after 2010’s Off the Record), Jack visits the London home of Harold Rushton Hunt, the elderly owner of Hunt Coffee, who asks the unofficial detective’s help in finding his great-nephew, Mark Helston. On the evening of January 9, 1925, Helston, an employee of the family firm, left his flat, and no one has seen him since. The local police who investigated were baffled, so Jack tells Hunt he has little hope of succeeding, but he agrees to take the case. As Jack starts to interview other members of the Hunt family, more than one of whom turns up dead, he uncovers a trail that leads to the coffee plantations of Brazil. While some readers may bog down in the abundant details, Sherlock Holmes fans will enjoy how the intricate plot builds to a particularly satisfying solution.

August 1, 2012
A clever sleuth's efforts to find a missing man involve him in murder. H.R. Hunt, the head of Hunt Coffee Limited, wants Jack Haldean, a World War I pilot turned mystery writer and amateur sleuth, to find his vanished great-nephew Mark Helston. Although the police have concluded that Mark left for reasons of his own, Haldean (Off the Record, 2011, etc.) agrees, despite his reservations, to look for him. Mark and his sister Pat inherited a large amount of money from their grandmother, most of it going to Mark. Pat, who's been collecting an income from her share, would inherit it all if Mark was proved dead. A body Haldean finds in a deserted house is identified as that of the Brazilian who managed the Hunt coffee plantation. Suddenly Mark is a murder suspect. The case becomes even more confusing when Pat's first husband, Larry Tyrell, who was reported killed in the war, turns up claiming amnesia. Pat's current husband, Greg Jaggard, loves her despite their often rocky relationship and is suspicious that Tyrell's appeared now that Pat may be in line for a fortune. H.R. Hunt has a pal of Haldean's looking for reasons for the company's suspiciously low profits, even though Frederick Hunt, who currently runs the business, is untroubled by them. When a company secretary is murdered and Haldean finds Mark buried under another man's name, Jaggard is arrested for murder. Haldean doesn't believe in Jaggard's guilt, but it will be tough to prove him innocent. A classic mystery in the style of Philip Macdonald's Anthony Gethryn stories; complex, insouciant and very British.

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July 1, 2012
Suave, debonair, intelligent, brave, principled, and thoroughly niceMajor Jack Haldean is all these things, and he's gifted at solving mysteries. His excellent reputation is exactly why he finds himself, in late 1925, in the plush London drawing room of coffee tycoon H. R. Hunt, who wants Jack to find out what happened to Hunt's nephew, Mark Helston, who disappeared several months earlier. The dependable Helston was in line to take over Hunt Coffee from his uncle, so why would he disappear without a trace? The police are mystified, but since a rather large inheritance was involved, they figure Helston's disappearance could have been tied to the money. As Jack starts to investigate, he finds only dead ends. Then a body is found in an abandoned house, and Jack fears the worst. As the mystery deepens and the body count mounts, Jack feels pressure from multiple directions.. Thoroughly researchedincluding the slang of the dayand cleverly plotted, Gordon-Smith's latest installment in the Jack Haldean series is compelling, surprising, and always entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)