Looking Back: More of Michael Gilbert

While Michael Gilbert was an amazingly adept and prolific author of all kinds of crime fiction, I am particularly fond of his classic puzzle-style mysteries. So it's worth noting that Gilbert's first novel, "Close Quarters," published in 1947 but set ten years earlier, features the same Scotland Yard inspector who appears in "Smallbone Deceased," which was reviewed on the podcast this week.

I have written about "Close Quarters" earlier, and you can listen to that podcast review here. Chief Inspector Hazlerigg is called in first to investigate an odd and unpleasant series of apparent pranks at a British cathedral - and so finds himself on the scene for a murder. It's a fine mystery by one of the 20th century's most honored crime fiction writers.

Comments

[Martin Edwards]

Excellent review. I share your enthusiasm for Gilbert and this great book. I also listened to your review of The Bells of Old Bailey, which was equally god.

[Les Blatt]

Thank you. I find it difficult to understand why so few of Gilberts books
remain in print, at least in the United States. Im grateful for the Rue Morgue
Press, which has published a few of his, not to mention Dorothy Bowerss books
as well.