Troubled Deaths

Cognac, Mallorca, Murder; He's back. After escaping from his modest English life, Geoffrey Freeman was now the owner of a seven-million-peseta home, enjoying the expatriate way of life in Mallorca. It's a life of leisure, wine and dining, until Freeman falls suddenly and fatally ill. Cholera is the initial verdict, but when the cause of death is confirmed to be poison, Inspector Alvarez is called upon to investigate the case. All signs point to the love-sick spinster, Mabel Striggs, who surreptitiously helped Freeman embezzle funds out of England, after which - and in recompense, Freeman had wanted nothing to do with her. What appears to be a straightforward case is soon blown wide-open as Mabel falls victim to the poison and Alvarez must whittle down a whole host of suspects, not least of all the enchanting Caroline the object of Alvarez's hopeless infatuation. Rife with twists and turns, Troubled Deaths will keep you guessing 'whodunit' till the very end. 'A first-rate whodunit turning on the resourcefulness of a country gentleman who exploits the process of the law to delay its action. Author on the top of his legal and social form.' - Francis Goff, The Sunday Telegraph ‘Roderic Jeffries established a very high reputation for himself.' -Maurice Richardson, The Observer ‘The resulting legal intricacies make fascinating reading.' - Hester Makeig, The Spectator 'First-class, smoothly told, fine court scenes and sketches of lawyers entirely absorbing.' - John Clarke, Evening Standard ‘The most ingenious of Mr. Jeffries's exercises in legal trickery.' - Julian Symons, The Sunday Times '...is for the mystery story connoisseur and particularly the man who can appreciate this ingenious exercise in legal trickery.' - Police World Roderic Jeffries was born in London in 1926 and was educated at Harrow View House Preparatory School and the Department of Navigation, University of Southampton. In 1943, he joined the New Zealand Shipping Company as an apprentice and sailed to Australia and New Zealand, but later transferred to the Union Castle Company in order to visit a different part of the world. He returned to England in 1949 where he was admitted to the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn and read for the Bar at the same time as he began to write. He was called to the Bar in 1953, and after one year's pupilage, practiced law for a few terms during which time there to write full time. His first book, a sea story for juveniles, was published in 1950.