Chessman, The

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This book is set in the 1920's, and it was quite entertaining reading a book that doesn't have the brilliant reports and toys of the CSI labs. In this book we get the feeling of being played, like chess pieces throughout the book. Just as you think you know what's happening, someone or a piece overtakes you...... The book was written in a quick pace, despite being almost a hundred years old narrative, and leaves you wishing for the opportunity to say CHECKMATE! Highly recommended!

Sir Matthew Vardon was an unpleasant man. We meet him extorting some shares from a drug addict. Successful, he leaves the desperate young man with a syringe full of a potentially lethal dose… When next we meet him, however, it is at his own funeral. He died of apparent apoplexy – but a note is found in his effects: “I AM KILLING YOU SLOWLY. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. THE CHESSMAN”

Days later, Isabelle Stanton and Sue Castradon are arranging the flowers in the church. But it’s not just flowers they find in a cupboard. It’s a body, with the hands and feet removed and the face battered beyond all recognition. And next to the body – an ornate chess-piece…

It seems that the Chessman has a plan – well, a hit-list at least. But in the meantime, Isabelle Stanton has contacted her brother – the writer-cum-amateur detective Jack Haldean. But he’ll have to move fast to stop the death count from rising even further…

So, back to Dolores Gordon-Smith’s Jack Haldean series, first visited um… five reviews ago. It was while reading that one that I spotted the latest available for review on Netgalley. As I was enjoying the first one, I thought I’d sample the latest in the series. And I’m really glad I did.

Very much written in the Golden Age style, this was an absolute treat. Jack Haldean is an affable lead – no obvious quirks apart from a dodgy leg – and there’s a pleasing array of suspects, although for large parts of the narrative, the reader won’t know which direction to look in.

The serial killer idea is rather hard to marry to the whodunit format. I can think of one obvious success, The ABC Murders, (actually two, although I’ve rarely seen And Then There Were None referred to in that way) but others generally don’t pull it off so well – one problem is that with a cast of suspects, the victims tend to be anonymous which makes a motive hard to establish. If the killer instead works on the main cast, then it’s usually easy to spot the killer as the book progresses. It takes a clever plot to make you care about the victims and still get blind-sided by the identity of the villain.

Talking of the characters, there’s a lovely variety of characters on display – none of the two-dimensional stereotypes that often populated the books from the era that is being emulated here. There are only a few Golden Age books I can think of where I found myself caring as much about some of the characters as much as I did here – the final few pages in particular were lovely.

This book has a clever plot. Even an old dog like me had a couple of theories – all I’ll say is that they were both half-right and half-wrong. If I’d put them together in the right way… but no, I was fooled. It’s a clever game that the author plays here and I absolutely loved it.

UK readers – it’s out at the end of the month, so go pester your library to order a copy of it now. It’s an absolute cracker. Highly Recommended.

I have really become a fan of these Jack Haldean mystery novels written by Dolores Gordon-Smith. She has a wonderful talent with plotting a mystery that will keep you puzzled right up until she reveals all. This one had a twist followed by a swerve. These novels are set in the 1920s following the ending of World War I and that conflict always plays a large part in the attitudes and psychological balance (or not) of various characters. This one is set in the small village of Croxton Ferriers in Sussex and our amateur sleuth, Jack Haldean, is allowed to help the police in their investigations. In fact, they rather insist on it.

When two ladies go into the church to prepare the flowers for the coming Sunday services they make a grisly discovery. But who is the person they found murdered and how did anyone get into the locked church to hide his body in the first place? This story features anonymous threatening letters and tokens left at each crime scene as communications from the murderer. In a village this small, how has this obvious lunatic remained hidden?

I like the comfy, old-fashioned feeling of this series of novels which still seem to give the mystery lovers among us enough dead bodies to satisfy our chance to show off our own solving skills. I’m not positive, but I think this is probably book #9 in the series. If you want to begin reading them right here, go ahead. You will find all the backstory for the repeat characters you need to feel right at home immediately. Highly recommended for readers of the older style of mysteries.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley.

How far would you go for the promise of gold? Many years previously, three friends visited South America together, forming a joint venture. Now, gold beckons and the Vardons are eager to get the shares before the others realise their worth.

Lord Vardon dies in a sudden turn of ill health. A poison pen letter is found by his wife, suggesting murder. A man with many enemies never dies easy - and he is only the first. Sue Castradon and Isabelle Stanton discover a hideously mutilated body in the hall of the church, a chess piece at its side. As the Chessman's kills mount, suspicion falls on Ned Castradon, quick tempered and possessing 1/3 of the company shares. At the insistence of his friends, the Stantons, Jack Haldean assists in the investigation.

In the 1920s, forensic science wasn't what it is today. Jack Haldean and the police not only have to uncover the killer, they have to discover the identity of the bodies. To the reader, it is obvious that Castradon isn't the killer, there are simply too many clues pointing to him. The challenge is to discover the real killer when there is little physical evidence. Further without being certain of the victim, motive cannot be determined. Thus the case facing Haldean is a challenging one.

Fans of historical mysteries will enjoy this clever, character driven novel.

4/5

The Chessman is available for preorder and will be released December 1, 2015.

I received a copy of The Chessman from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Match wits with The Chessman

http://muttcafe.com/2015/11/the-chessman

11/23/2015