A Hundred Thousand Dragons

Jack Haldean Murder Mystery #4

by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Meet Jack Haldean, flying ace, gentleman about town, crime-writing sensation . . . amateur sleuth.

He is the author of many a twisty plotline. Now he must use his crime-writing skills to solve a murder for real.

Femmes fatales, old adversaries and a case that takes him halfway across the globe . . . Jack’s world’s about to go up in smoke.

England, 1923. Sipping cocktails in Claridge’s Hotel, Jack locks eyes with the last person he wants to see. Hot-headed explorer Durant Craig . Craig comes storming over, ranting of the terrible wrong Jack has done him . Jack won’t — or can’t — deny it.

Days later, Jack’s at a country house party. He steps out for some air, only to witness a motorcar explode into flames .

Jack races to the inferno — too late to save the driver. One look at the staged scene and Jack knows this wreck was no accident. It’s a smokescreen for murder .

Now Jack’s on the trail of the fire-starter — and their even more elusive female companion. Together, they’re leading him a merry from Sussex to Malta to a lost city of Arabia.

Jack will fly halfway across the globe if that’s what it takes to solve the mystery. But he can’t outrun his past . . .

Is Jack ready to face his own demons for the sake of the case?

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical, British Literature, Crime

296 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2010

About the author

Dolores Gordon-Smith is the author of A Fete Worse than Death, the first in the Jack Haldean series. She graduated from the University of Surrey in 1981. She lives in Cheshire, United Kingdom.

Extra info found on Wikipedia

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a 4.5 🌟 read rounded ⬆️ to 5 🌟.

Simply superb!

[Tiffany E-P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series gets better and better! Ended with a cliff hanger!

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable diversion, if a bit unsatisfactory towards the end. The author built up the backstory of the mystery and the main character in great detail, yet seemed to rush toward a slightly contrived ending.

Notes on second reading: Way too much attention placed on figuring out the timing, then figuring out the code. The ending really is rushed and unsatisfactory. Haldean's interesting war-time backstory emerges but it's almost as if the author is trying to fill in the blanks to make everything fit. And it doesn't quite.

Second reading: August 2015
First read: June 2011

[Helen Ahern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another free listen on audible. It’s a bit old fashioned and Sherlock Holmes’s like and the ending is like Raiders of the lost arc. Not bad but not memorable either.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Jack Haldean series is simply flights of complicated fancy. But it's quite entertaining and the characters are likeable.

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Haldean must confront something he regards as shameful which happened during World War I when two men from his past converge on his present life. An apparent car crash and a dead body bring both his friends from the police – Superintendent Ashley and Inspector Bill Rackham into the story. Hidden treasure and a trip to the Middle East not to speak of an excursion into the use of various codes including Playfair produce some scenes reminiscent of Dorothy L Sayers’ ‘Have His Carcase.’

I enjoyed this mystery story with its frightening denouement in the desert. I found the background of the early days of flying made interesting reading. It made me realise how relatively safe and easy air travel is today. I like the characters in this series – Jack himself and his cousin Isabelle with her unconventional (unconventional for that era) attitudes to life and adventure.

If you like crime stories without too much violence and with plenty of adventure, where the villains are really villains and the heroes aren’t actually too perfect then this may be the series for you. The books can be read in any order and this is number four in the series.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all the other Jack Haldean mysteries, and I was really looking forward to this one, but it just didn't work for me. I'm not quite sure why. I had a hard time keeping track of the players (especially since one character goes by multiple aliases) and found that I just didn't care. This should have been a book that brought us closer to the hero, giving us a sense of what he endured in WWI. Instead it comes off as a bit melodramatic and not particularly believable even with a stretched imagination.

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into the story, it was not helping being the fourth volume in the series. It can stand alone but a bit confusing with all the characters. I liked that period in between the two wars.

[Lizzytish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the other three. We find out about Jack’s back history during the war. It is not pretty reading. There is a secret code, a murder, and the question of who is who and what side are they on. The ending was highly improbable, but enjoyable.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, this is the best of the series so far. Get to know more about the main character Jack Haldean and the story goes back to things that happened during the war in the Middle East. Loved the tie-ins to Egyptian archaeology, both King Tut’s tomb and Ramses II and the poem by Shelley.

[Kim Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best one yet

This is the best of the series so far. The characters are likeable and the plots twisty (if that's a word). I still find it hard to credit that Jack is only 23, but I guess war would give a person a more mature outlook. Looking forward to the next one.

[Philip R Feltham · Rating 5 out of 5]

New series for me!

I chose the first book because in like reading about the era. Wasn't quite sure at first, but then got hooked on the characters and the mystery. Binge read the rest .... Great read!

[Lisa T. Ungerer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stick with it, the end is great

Parts of this book are straightforward, parts are grim, but the end really zings. Better than H. Rider Haggard, almost Amelia Peabody. Also,not helps if you read at least one of the earlier books first. Recommended.

[Michael Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting murder with a clever twist. I realize this is fiction, but the ending was a bit presposterous,

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

20 Very Boys Own derring do. The plot is, IMO, a tad overdone and unnecessarily convoluted. But it has a satisfactory start and ending. I will read more of Mr Haldean.

[Michelle Jedrzejowska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook which was very good.

[Westley]

Couldn't get through it.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: torture of a minor.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1920s. Jack Haldean has to return to 1915 when he was a 17 year old pilot who was sent on a secret mission, to solve his current mystery.
An entertaining historical mystery.

[JJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these Jack Haldane books and am working my way through them.
This one recounts some of Jack’s war exploits when he was a very young pilot.
There was a very traumatic time when he was captured and he has carried a guilt complex about it through his life. Now it all comes back to haunt him and the older Jack must try to understand what the younger Jack had to do to survive.

[Val Sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Echos of WW1 again plague Jack. This time he must confront the fear and self-hatred stemming from his actions in the Arabian sands as a 17-year old RAF pilot sent behind enemy lines. I loved reading about Egypt when Egypt was a newly discovered wondrous land of Pharaohs, Sphinx and Bedouin. The heat, the dust, the wonder all came back and my desire to see Petra rekindled. The story is clever but unoriginal in its cast of villains and deluded enthusiasts, but the insight into Jack's past, the torment and his drive to free himself is grand reading. As always, Jack and his friends get a little too lucky at escaping from the jaws of death, but that's part of the fun, too. Indian Jones meets the British lords and ladies. Terrifically fun.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Haldean has met Durant Craig before. That's why he's not surprised when the man confronts him in Claridge's Hotel. Also present are Jack's friend and a lawyer named Vaughn. They are all also present at a costume party when a car accident ends the life of... someone. It all harkens back to the war and when Craig and Haldean had crossed paths before. And the poem that leads them on the hunt for a hundred thousand dragons.
This book just didn't keep my attention like some of the others have. It was a nice enough book in the series but nothing spectacular. When I reread it as an audiobook, it definitely improved.

[Karen Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an ode to Agatha Christie. It's written in much of the same style (male protagonist/ordinary person detective) and feel (England in the 1920s). For a book my husband picked up randomly at the library, I really enjoyed it, though there were a few minor parts where I thought the author over-described the scenes/dialogue.

Overall, well written and well paced. A good, solid mystery.

(spoiler)

...
I was, however, confused at the very end, where I assumed the main character died...but I checked and she is still writing Jack Haldean mysteries, so I was wrong.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Haldean had left the deserts of Trans Jordan disgraced and broken. But now, years after the end of the Great War, he meets one of the few people who knows what happened. If the story ever gets out--Jack doesn't want to think about that. A sudden death, a mysterious American who can't be found, a beautiful woman, and a few lines of verse bring Jack and his friends into danger. Another addition to an enjoyable series.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series! It not only evokes the spirit of Agatha Christie and classic murder mysteries but Golden Age movies.
In this one, we get a glimpse of some of Jack's war-time action. It is more of an adventure story rather than a straight mystery with the past reaching into the present, codes to decipher, former adversaries with unfinished business. The ending seemed to be a bit hurried, but a good adventure along the way -- and Isabelle's wedding .

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Jack, the protagonist of this series, so I will try another--even though the woman I was seeing as his romantic interest just married someone else--but this volume had too much time with Jack and other sitting around discussing timing and unraveling hidden codes. Although it ends with a show down in the deserts of North Africa.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one emphasized Jack as action hero, so not quite as believable. However, I think it has one of the best endings to any of the mysteries in the series or mysteries in general. The statement about the planes catching the sun, resonates like the green light at the end of the pier. Also an interesting background on England in Arabia during and after World War I.

[Kathy Moberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a page turner! It's the best yet in a fine series -- may it continue for years to come! In addition to a gripping storyline, the author provides fascinating information about Jack Haldean's past, further deepening his character.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

(hardcover)

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed in this her 4th Jack Haldean mystery. Not as interesting and there were some omissions that were established in the first 3 that bothered me