The Chapel in the Woods

British author Gordon-Smith’s thrilling 11th Jack Haldean 1920s mystery (after 2019’s Forgotten Murder) takes novelist and amateur sleuth Haldean to Croxton Abbas, Sussex, where a 17th-century privateer built a fine house, Birchen Bower, as well as a chapel to contain the remains of his wife, an unhappy Peruvian princess who, locals say, haunts the woods in the form of a jaguar. After a rich Canadian couple, Tom and Rosalind Jago, buy Birchen Bower and show up to take possession, they discover that Derek Martin, their advance man, has vanished along with his wife—along with the Jago jewels that the Martins were entrusted with. More alarmingly, in the middle of a village fete, another man, the Jagos’ caretaker, is found dead in the chapel—and the wounds look like they were inflicted by a jaguar. Haldean is soon investigating the grisly killing, and the suspense ratchets up any time he or anyone else goes near the chapel, located in a thick forest filled with animal screams. The surprising revelations just keep coming. This is a real treat for those who enjoy Agatha Christie village murders. (Mar.)