The London Club by H.R. Gillespie

About the book

The Macpherson Team of Scotland Yard is again in action. Mr. Victor I. Paulson was a very successful business man with headquarters in London. He was aggressive, abrasive and the self-made owner of the Paulson Company. Some think his demise was deserved while others feel saddened by the early end of his life. He rose from being the leader of a street gang in London in his mid teens, to become a member of the prestigious London Club.

The MacPherson Team led by Chief Ian MacPherson and assisted by Dr. Sergeant David Campbell, a retired Ph.D. from the States. Sergeants John Wilson and Jane Aubrey are assigned to assist in the investigation. The team develops the Crucible Techniques to gather information about those who were close to Victor Paulson and influenced by him. These people are described as being in the Paulson Crucible and are vetted and evaluated as benefiting or not from his demise.

The first challenge to the MacPherson Team was to determine if a crime had been committed. They determined that, indeed, Paulson's death was not an accident. The subsequent challenge consisted of eliminating each person in crucible until there was only one person left. The accused mounts a defense that puts the outcome of the murder trial in question in spite of an admission of guilt.

The author does not wrap up the story in a nice neat package. The reader has all of the facts and is left with the challenge to decide that if he/she were on the jury, how he/she would vote -- guilty of first degree murder, manslaughter, or innocent.

About the author

Dr. H.R. Gillespie is a retired manufacturing executive. His education includes an undergraduate degree in engineering, an MBA and a Doctorate in International Business. He started his career in the aerospace industry with Chance Vought Aircraft Company and worked on the Corsair Fighter plane. He moved into the electromechanical/high-tech business after his service and became a corporate President (a subsidiary of Samsonite Corp.)

After he retired from the manufacturing business, he built a consulting business specializing in the telecommunication area, primarily serving the Electrical Utility business.

He has written and lectured about the psychology of management, organization and the role of the CEO. He has combined this knowledge of psychology and his experience as a corporate president with extensive travel in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Scandinavia and the Continent and put it to use in his writing.

He was elected to honor societies in High school and College. He also managed to play a little basketball and made the golf team at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Since his second retirement and the death of his wife, he has concentrated his interests in his three children, three grandchildren and his writing. He has written two science fiction books RAMUS and RAM STAR. His first Detective/Mystery book is partly based on personal experience.