Death in Captivity is a mystery novel by the British crime writer Michael Gilbert, first published in the United Kingdom in 1952 by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Harper & Brothers as The Danger Within. It was Gilbert's sixth novel and, unlike his previous ones, does not feature Chief Inspector Hazlerigg in any way. Nor is it set in Gilbert's usual locales of London, the English countryside, or France. Instead, while it has many of the elements of the classic detective story, it is also a gripping novel of mounting suspense that takes place in a 1943 prisoner of war camp for British officers in northern Italy—it was the first of Gilbert's numerous later works that would feature suspense and danger as much or more as elements of detection. Gilbert himself had been a British officer during the war, was captured, and interned in an Italian camp. He escaped and spent several months making his way through the Italian countryside trying to reach the British lines. Much of this book apparently reflects his own experiences. It was the basis of a 1959 British film, Danger Within (Breakout in the United States), that closely followed the events in the book. H.R.F. Keating, who wrote Gilbert's obituary for The Guardian, said that "Gilbert's time as a PoW prompted Death In Captivity (1952), surely the only whodunnit set in a prisoner-of-war camp."[1]
A murder has been committed, but not in the usual confines of the secluded English country house so typical of the Golden age of detective fiction. Instead, a Greek prisoner of war interned in a camp for British officers is found dead in a secret tunnel that a number of the officers have been tirelessly working on in the hope of fleeing the camp. No one knows how the Greek could have gotten there or who could have killed him. Hoping to protect their tunnelling activities, a committee of senior officers designates a scholarly fellow officer to investigate the death and attempt to determine who had killed the Greek and somehow get him into their tunnel. Most of the rest of the book concerns his attempts to carry out a discreet investigation within the heavily guarded camp. Just as he is about to finally reveal who has committed the crime, word comes that the Italians, who have now officially left the war, are about to turn the camp over to German forces. The tunnel can just barely be completed in the next few hours—will they then be able to evacuate the entire camp before the Germans arrive? The final chapters of the book relate the adventures of three escaped officers as they attempt to traverse the Italian countryside and reach the safety of the Allied lines. Gilbert himself, in real life, escaped with two fellow officers, and the book is dedicated to the actual names of those officers.
The US version of the novel, The Danger Within, ends with the breakout from the camp, and omits (except as a half-page postscript) the journey through Italy.[2] The film Danger Within also ends with the breakout.
Appraisal
An appraisal some years after its publication comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime:
A superb, though harrowing, story of murder in a prisoner-of-war camp in northern Italy towards the end of the last world war. The skill with which suspense is kept up during a series of trivial incidents related to oppression and plans of escape is equaled only by the management of a large number of characters, Italian and English.[3]
A prisoner of war (POW) is a combatant or non-combatant—whether a military member, an irregular military fighter, or a civilian—who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic adventure suspense war film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton and Angus Lennie. It was filmed in Panavision.
Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a de facto basis in 1940. It operated from 21 May 1941 to September 1944, and was the only concentration camp established by the Germans in the territory of pre-war France. The camp was located in a heavily-forested and isolated area at an elevation of 800 metres (2,600 ft).
Michael Francis Gilbert was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.
The Cowra breakout occurred on 5 August 1944, when 1,104 Japanese prisoners of war attempted to escape from a prisoner of war camp near Cowra, in New South Wales, Australia. It was the largest prison escape of World War II, as well as one of the bloodiest. During the escape and ensuing manhunt, 4 Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese soldiers were killed. The remaining escapees were re-captured and imprisoned.
Rupert Davies FRSA was a British actor best remembered for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of Maigret, based on Georges Simenon's Maigret novels.
Oflag V-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager), in operation from 1940 until 1942. It was located in Biberach in south-eastern Baden-Württemberg.
Danger Within is a 1959 British war film set in a prisoner of war camp in Northern Italy during the summer of 1943. A combination of POW escape drama and whodunit, the movie is based upon the 1952 novel Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert, who had been a prisoner of war held by the Italians.
Group Captain Harry Melville Arbuthnot Day, was a Royal Marine and later an Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War. As a prisoner of war, he was senior British officer in a number of camps and a noted escapee.
Klim is a brand of powdered milk sold by Nestlé, which acquired it in 1998 from Borden. Klim is sold worldwide, Early ads featured the slogan "Spell it backwards."
The situation of World War I prisoners of war in Germany is an aspect of the conflict little covered by historical research. However, the number of soldiers imprisoned reached a little over seven million for all the belligerents, of whom around 2,400,000 were held by Germany.
Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp was a World War I prisoner-of-war camp for British and British Empire officers located in Holzminden, Lower Saxony, Germany. It opened in September 1917, and closed with the final repatriation of prisoners in December 1918. It is remembered as the location of the largest PoW escape of the war, in July 1918: 29 officers escaped through a tunnel, of whom ten evaded subsequent recapture and managed to make their way back to Britain.
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.
Into Battle is a mystery-suspense novel by the British crime writer Michael Gilbert, first published by Robert Hale in England in 1997 and by Carroll & Graf in the United States in 1997. It was Gilbert's 29th novel and the second of three featuring his final set of recurring characters, Luke Pagan and Joe Narrabone. Set near the beginning of World War I, it has, along with its fictional characters and situations, references to actual events of the time, and a number of actual historical personages also play roles in the 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.
Heinrich Gerlach was a German soldier in the 14th Panzer Division during the Second World War, who later became a Latin and German teacher. His semi-autobiographical novel, The Forsaken Army, was published in West Germany in 1957. It was rewritten with the help of hypnosis after the original manuscript was seized by the Soviets. In 2012, Carsten Gansel discovered the original manuscript in the State Russian Military Archive. It was then published in Germany in 2016 and its English translation was published in 2017 as Breakout at Stalingrad.
The Family Tomb is a 1969 suspense novel by the British mystery and thriller writer Michael Gilbert. It was published by Harper & Row in the United States in 1970 and in 1969, by Hodder and Stoughton in England as The Etruscan Net. It is Gilbert's 14th novel and takes place entirely in Florence, Italy, a few years after the great flood of the Arno river in 1966, which caused serious damage in the city. Gilbert had a great fondness for Italy, which was the setting for a number of his books. One of these is his other well-known novel Death in Captivity, a mystery based on Gilbert's time in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.
Edgar Henry Garland was a New Zealand officer, known for numerous escapes from German prisoners camps during WWI. He was regarded as one of the most cunning and slippery of the British officers by the German War Office. He became a famous around the end of the war and got the nickname "The Elusive Garland".
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