Plot
The body of a woman is discovered hidden away in the bushes near a little-known part of London, the fictitious Binford Park Reservoir, which, in spite of its size, importance, and somewhat rural aspects, is relatively inconspicuous and unknown even to its closest neighbors. Although a number of policemen are featured in the book, both those at Q Division and additional members from New Scotland Yard, Petrella is the protagonist through whom we see most of the story. The story is told in what is apparently a realistic and knowledgeable depiction of how a great metropolitan police force would actually investigate this sort of crime. So-called "police procedurals" were becoming popular in the 1950s, with notable examples being the 87th Precinct novels of the American writer Ed McBain and the British novels about Commander Gideon of Scotland Yard by J.J. Marrick. Gilbert himself was a longtime practicing solicitor in London, and in this story, as in many of his others, he imbues it with a fair amount of court scenes and overall legal expertise.
In spite of being mostly focused on the police and how they methodically track down, arrest, and have prosecuted various professional criminals, there are still surprising twists and turns in the story's plotting, in which apparently straightforward assumptions and/or characters are suddenly revealed to be something completely different. It is, in fact, not until the very last pages that we are sure that the actual perpetrator has been arrested—but not yet brought to trial. And, in a final ironic twist, the odious gangster who has previously been arrested and convicted on a capital murder charge is set free on appeal and now looks to profit greatly from his legal tribulations by selling his story to the newspapers for a large amount of money. As one of Gilbert's editors said after his death in 2006, "He's not a hard-boiled writer in the classic sense, but there is a hard edge to him, a feeling within his work that not all of society is rational, that virtue is not always rewarded.". [3] Such is the case here.
The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agencies as the protagonists, as contrasted with other genres that focus on non-police investigators such as private investigators.
Edward Dentinger Hoch was an American writer of detective fiction. Although he wrote several novels, he was primarily known for his vast output of over 950 short stories. He was one of the few America fiction writers of his generation who supported himself financially through short story publication, rather than novels or screenplays.
Michael Francis Gilbert was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.
Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, is a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath.
She Died a Lady is a mystery novel by American writer John Dickson Carr, who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit featuring the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale.
Patrick Petrella is a fictional police detective created by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert who appears in ten books published between 1959 and 2003 and is probably the best-known of the half-dozen or so recurring characters that Gilbert wrote about throughout his long career. He is the protagonist of two novels and of 54 short stories that were first published in magazines and newspapers and then republished in eight collections of stories. In one of the short stories, however, "The Spoilers", in Game Without Rules, featuring Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens as the protagonists, he appears only very briefly, at the end of the story. In his first appearance in a novel, the 1959 police procedural Blood and Judgement, Petrella is a "probationary" Detective Sergeant at the (fictional) Q Division of the London Metropolitan Police. By the final novel in the series, Roller Coaster, he has worked his way up to become a Superintendent.
Smallbone Deceased is a 1950 mystery novel by the English author Michael Gilbert, published in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Harper & Brothers. A practising lawyer himself, Gilbert made the setting of the novel a London solicitor's office. The book was Gilbert's fourth novel and, like his three earlier ones, features Chief Inspector Hazlerigg. The novel was well-received and has regularly appeared in "Top 100" crime lists. Some critics consider it to be Gilbert's best work.
Close Quarters is the first novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. Published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1947, it did not appear in the United States until 1963. By then Gilbert's reputation had been firmly established in both countries and his regular American publisher for many years had been Harper & Brothers. Close Quarters, however, was published by Walker and Company, a less prestigious house. In it we are introduced to Chief Inspector Hazlerigg, who will go on to be a recurring character in a number of Gilbert's works throughout the next ten years. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Fear to Tread is a mystery–crime thriller by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 1953 by Hodder and Stoughton in England and by Harper & Brothers in the United States. Set mostly in London, it was his seventh novel in six years and built upon the favourable reputation he had achieved earlier with the well-received Smallbone Deceased and Death Has Deep Roots. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. It is one of numerous stories and novels by Gilbert presenting a gritty, realistic depiction of organized gangs, frequently directed by a deeply concealed mastermind who is not unearthed until the final pages.
Stay of Execution is a collection of mystery stories by the British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 1971 by Hodder & Stoughton. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. Unusually for a collection of stories, its reprint edition by House of Stratus in 2011 has no index detailing the stories in the book. The longest story, by far, is the last one in the book, Stay of Execution. At 54 pages, it is what is generally called a novella. Two of the stories feature Chief Superintendent Hazlerigg; three Henry Bohun; and one Detective Inspector Petrella, characters who have figured in other short stories and novels by Gilbert. The Independent said of the book in 2006:
Gilbert had a fondness for amusing but unscrupulous pirates... and an entirely practical, indeed sceptical, view of the workings of the law. It was typical of his humour that the two stories in his excellent collection Stay of Execution (1971) in which rascally solicitors "get away with it", "Back on the Shelf" and "Mr Portway's Practice", were written in the first person.
The Man Who Hated Banks is a collection of mystery stories by the British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 1997 by the American company Crippen & Landru. As the back cover of the book tells us, it was "published in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Michael Gilbert's first book." Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. It has an Introduction by the author and contains 18 of his previously uncollected stories, all of them concerning characters who have figured in other novels and short stories. Seven of the stories feature Chief Inspector Hazlerigg; five Henry Bohun; three Detective Chief Inspector Mercer; and three Detective Inspector Petrella.
They Never Looked Inside is the second novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. It was published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1948 and in the United States by Harper & Brothers in 1949 as He Didn't Mind Danger. It was Gilbert's first publication in the States. It is also the second novel to feature Gilbert's earliest recurring character, Inspector Hazlerigg. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Amateur in Violence is a collection of mystery stories by the prominent British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, published in the United States in 1973 by Davis Publications, a publishing house for magazines, but not in England. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. The book is edited, and has an introduction, by Ellery Queen, the founder and long-term editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It contains 10 stories and a short novel that had been previously uncollected in the United States. Some of them feature characters who have figured in other novels and short stories by Gilbert. Three stories feature Inspector Hazlerigg and four Inspector Petrella. The short novel, "Stay of Execution", had previously given its name to the title of a collection published in England in 1971.
The Curious Conspiracy is a collection of mystery stories by the British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 2002 by the American company Crippen & Landru and then in England. Published to recognize Gilbert's 90th birthday, it contains 20 previously uncollected stories, as well as a brief introduction by Gilbert himself and an appendix for Sources. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. Four of the stories in this collection feature two of Gilbert's many recurring characters that he created throughout his long career of writing both novels and short stories. Gilbert's introduction says that the topics covered by the stories are "catholic", in the sense of being "of universal human interest; touching the needs, interests or sympathies of all men." The locales vary from London to a Red Sea sheikdom and the time frame from the present day back to the Peninsular War. Some of them, such as "Judith", have an unexpected grimness about them. "Michael was an exceptionally fine storyteller, but he's hard to classify," said one of his British publishers after his death. "He's not a hard-boiled writer in the classic sense, but there is a hard edge to him, a feeling within his work that not all of society is rational, that virtue is not always rewarded.".
The Doors Open, published by Hodder and Stoughton in England in 1949 and by Walker and Company in the United States in 1962, is the third novel by the British mystery and thriller writer Michael Gilbert. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. Like his first two books, it features Inspector Hazlerigg, although not in a major role. It is, in fact, a very diffuse book in terms of its characters. Angus McMann, who was the chief protagonist of Gilbert's previous book, They Never Looked Inside, is briefly mentioned on the first page and makes a later appearance as a minor character. Hazlerigg does not appear until page 24 and thereafter only at intervals throughout the book. There are, in actuality, three other protagonists who, along with Hazlerigg, share the role of driving the narrative. One is Noel Anthony Pontarlier Rumbold ("Nap"), a junior solicitor in his father's London firm. Nap had spent four months on dangerous missions with the French maquis in occupied France during the war and is, apparently, still a Lieutenant-Colonel, D.S.O. A few years later he will be a main character in Gilbert's well-received novel Death Has Deep Roots. Patrick (Paddy) Yeatman-Carter, an acquaintance of Nap's, is another lead character, as is his uncle, Alfred Lord Cedarbrook, a man with an astonishing background, much sought after by both the Foreign Office and the War Office during WWII and now, apparently, still affiliated with the Secret Service. As well as being a linguist, explorer, soldier, and diplomat, he also has a law degree. All three of them, to one degree or another, carry out private investigations, sometimes with the backing of Hazlerigg, sometimes not.
Petrella at Q is a collection of 11 short stories plus one longer story divided into four parts about the British policeman Patrick Petrella by the British writer Michael Gilbert published in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton in 1977 and in the United States by Harper & Row the same year. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. Many of the stories had previously appeared in such magazines as Reveille in the United Kingdom and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the United States. In addition to the stories themselves, there is an introductory sketch of Petrella by Gilbert written especially for this book. A second collection of stories, Young Petrella, was published ten years later, in 1987, but consisted exclusively of stories about Petrella's very first years on the force, when he began as a detective constable.
Even Murderers Take Holidays and Other Mysteries is a collection of mystery stories by British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 2007 by the British company Robert Hale and unpublished in the United States. It contains 25 previously uncollected stories, as well as an introduction by John Cooper and an appendix. The first twelve stories feature Inspector Petrella, one of the many recurring characters that Gilbert created throughout his long career of writing both novels and short stories. Its next story has Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, and there are four stories about Inspector Hazlerigg. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. The locales are mostly set in London and its environs. A number of the stories, such as "Somebody" and "Old Mr Martin", have an unexpected grimness about them. "Michael was an exceptionally fine storyteller, but he's hard to classify," said one of his American publishers after his death. "He's not a hard-boiled writer in the classic sense, but there is a hard edge to him, a feeling within his work that not all of society is rational, that virtue is not always rewarded."
Ring of Terror is a mystery-suspense novel by the British crime writer Michael Gilbert, first published in the United Kingdom in 1995 by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Carroll & Graf. It was Gilbert's 28th novel and the first of three featuring his final set of recurring characters, Luke Pagan and Joe Narrabone. Set in the reign of Edward VII, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was also the first of Gilbert's historical mysteries. Along with its fictional characters and situations, there are references to actual events of the time, such as the Siege of Sidney Street, and Winston Churchill plays a minor role as Home Secretary. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Inspector Bill Mercer is a detective created by the British crime and mystery writer Michael Gilbert. He is the leading character in the 1972 novel The Body of a Girl, a somewhat hardboiled police procedural, and appears later in at least three short stories. On the first page of the novel, "Detective Inspector William Mercer received... confirmation of his promotion to chief inspector and his appointment in charge of the CID at Stoneferry on Thames, which is one of the larger upriver stations of Q Division of the Metropolitan Police."
The Body of a Girl is a suspense novel by the British author Michael Gilbert published in England by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Harper & Row in 1972. It was Gilbert's 15th novel and falls into the category of police procedurals, although it is undoubtedly more hard-boiled in tone than the usual procedurals. Its protagonist is a new character from Gilbert, the tough Inspector Bill Mercer, and a secondary character, Chief Superintendent Morrissey, also makes his first appearance. Gilbert, who created many series characters over his long career, later used both of them in various short stories.
