Bradley Jackson is a confirmed bachelor in his late twenties who lives in the fictitious southern New Brunswick village of Lambton in Royal County (a combination of Kings and Queens) during the late 1950’s.  A stocky man of medium height Bradley has black hair, a slight widow’s peak and wears dark-rimmed glasses.  He is a portrait photographer and sometime landscape painter.  His real love, of course, is the art of deduction.

In addition to their “down home” New Brunswick flavour, these stories feature Bradley Jackson’s distinctive approach to deduction.  He believes motive is of minor importance compared to method and opportunity.  Using what he calls geometric deduction, he gathers all the relevant facts assumes each suspect is guilty and then works backwards to determine which suspect’s guilt accounts for these facts.

Bradley also has an equally unique view of justice.  As the situation dictates,  he may agree with it, turn a blind eye to it or even give it a helping hand.

Despite his deductive abilities, there is one mystery that Bradley has difficulty solving:  the opposite sex.  As the village of Lambton posseses a number of strong minded women, such as Mrs. Barnes, a garrulous inn keeper:  Jackie Turnbull a flirtatious librarian and Miss Elizabeht, the queen of Royal County society:  Bradley must stay constantly on hies toes.

A lighter touch is provided by a colourful cast of village characters.

A romantic thread runs throughout these mysteries as Miss Elizabeth Quince,a member of the county’s leading family and the controlling shareholder in her family’s enterprises, is hot on Bradley’s trail with marriage in mind.  Although Bradley is extremely fond of Miss Elizabeth, he is fonder of his freedom.

Bradley is a soft-spoken individual and although he has a high opinion of his methods and abilities, he is quite willing to pass the credit elsewhere, usually to Inspector Walmsley and Sergeant Dutton the investigating detectives from the RCMP’s Criminal Investigation Branch who appear inmost of the novels in this series