Then the man was gone. Petrella lay quite flat and still on the cobbles, under the bright light now centred upon him.
At no point did he completely lose consciousness. He knew that he was being picked up, none too gently. He realised that he was being placed in the car, to which the bright light was in some way attached. And when he finally opened his eyes and sat up, it was no surprise to him to find himself sprawled in a chair in the back room of a Bureau de Police.
It was a surprise, however, to find that he recognised the man who was looking down at him.
“Commissaire,” he said. “Commissaire Michel, of Bordeaux.”
“Formerly of Bordeaux, now of Paris. And your name is Petrella. You are, or were, a member of the British police.”
“I still am,” said Petrella. “What’s left of me.”
“You are very lucky,” said the Commissaire, “that the damage is not greater. Perhaps you would care to explain why you are tackling, single-handed and, as far as I know, unaccredited, the Algerian terrorist organisation or, perhaps I should say, private army.”
“I’m on holiday,” said Petrella.
“I see,” said the Commissaire. “A vigorous commencement to your vacation. I would suggest that you drink this – and tell us exactly what you have been up to.”
Petrella drank the proffered wine thirstily; then he talked.
Commissaire Michel said, “I re-name you, The Cat. You have nine lives. How you came alive out of the Rue Antoine I cannot say. Would you mind letting me see the paper on which your compatriot wrote the young lady’s address.”
Petrella took out the piece of paper from his pocket and Commissaire Michel, after one glance at it, said, “It is, of course, not the Rue Antoine you wanted, but the Rue St. Antoine, in the Fourth Arrondissement. A very different street, in a very different type of district.”
“And the snake?”
“As you suppose. A gift for the terrorist funds. It would, eventually, have been sold for its true value in the Rue St. Honoré – after it had passed through three or four pairs of hands. Perhaps you gave some password. Or seeing you were alone and unarmed, in a quarter where an armed patrol will penetrate only if another armed patrol is covering it – they jumped to conclusions. A messenger to take charge of the snake was expected. You arrived. Therefore you were the messenger. A not uncommon form of reasoning.”
“They’d got it back. What were they worrying about?”
“Your crime did not lie in taking the snake. It was that you could recognise the man who had given it to you.”
“I see,” said Petrella. “You haven’t got some more of that wine, have you? By the way, how was it that you happened to be on the spot so conveniently? I haven’t really thanked you for that yet.”
“We observed that the organisation was in pursuit of someone. Therefore we watched them. Can you use your arm?”
“I don’t think there’s anything broken.”
“You understand that the man who used the knife was trying to blind you? To blind you, or mark the front of your face so deeply that you would be recognisable if you came to Paris again.”
“No,” said Petrella. “I didn’t understand.”
He realised that there was a lot that he did not understand, and would probably never understand about the secretive bitter warfare into the fringes of which he had trespassed.
“I have made arrangements,” said the Commissaire, “for you to be taken by ambulance to the station. You will be put into a special sleeper, and two ‘male nurses’ will travel with you as far as the Spanish frontier.”
He saw the look on Petrella’s face, and began to laugh.
“Cheer up,” he said. “Memories are not long. It would be well, I think, if you were to stay out of Paris for six months. You have an aged relative in Paris. I will arrange that she is informed – very discreetly.”
“You won’t shock her,” said Petrella. “She’s got no more nerves than a bull-terrier. What I was wondering – it’s a great impertinence. But might one of your subordinates be able to take a letter to the Rue St. Antoine? Mademoiselle Arture will perhaps be expecting a communication.”
“Of course,” said the Commissaire. “In an affair of the heart, no effort must be spared.”
It was two weeks later and Petrella was lying back in a long wicker chair on the verandah of the Villa Hernandez, listening to the cracked bell of the monastery on the hill, and waiting for his evening drink. When the man brought it to him, there was a letter beside it on the tray. And the envelope bore a French stamp.
It was from Commissaire Michel. It concluded, “So I dispatched one of my own men, Agent Crozier, to the Rue St. Antoine. I should judge that Mademoiselle Arture is a lady of uncommon attractions since Crozier has repeated his visit three times in the past week. I should suggest that perhaps your friend should visit Paris in person, or he may find that Mademoiselle Natalie prefers a French policeman in the flesh to an English one on paper.”
He was still laughing when his father stepped on to the verandah.
“Paris is such a wonderful place,” he said.
Michael Gilbert Titles in order of first publication
All Series titles can be read in order, or randomly as standalone novels
Inspector Hazlerigg
1. Close Quarters 1947
2. They Never Looked Inside alt: He Didn’t Mind Danger 1948
3. The Doors Open 1949
4. Smallbone Deceased 1950
5. Death has Deep Roots 1951
6. Fear To Tread (in part) 1953
7. The Young Petrella (included) (short stories) 1988
8. The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries (included) (short stories) 1997
Patrick Petrella
1. Blood and Judgement 1959
2. Amateur in Violence (included) (short stories) 1973
3. Petrella at Q (short stories) 1977
4. The Young Petrella (short stories) 1988
5. Roller Coaster 1993
6. The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries (included) (short stories) 1997
Luke Pagan
1. Ring of Terror 1995
2. Into Battle 1997
3. Over and Out 1998
Calder & Behrens
1. Game Without Rules (short stories) 1967
2. Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens (short stories) 1982
Non-Series
1. Death in Captivity alt: The Danger Within 1952
2. Sky High alt: The Country House Burglar 1955
3. Be Shot for Sixpence 1956
4. After the Fine Weather 1963
5. The Crack in the Teacup 1966
6. The Dust and the Heat alt: Overdrive 1967
7. The Etruscan Net alt: The Family Tomb 1969
8. Stay of Execution and Other Stories (short stories) 1971
9. The Body of a Girl 1972
10. The Ninety-Second Tiger 1973
11. Flash Point 1974
12. The Night of the Twelfth 1976
13. The Empty House 1979
14. The Killing of Katie Steelstock alt: Death of a Favourite Girl 1980
15. The Final Throw alt: End Game 1982
16. The Black Seraphim 1984
17. The Long Journey Home 1985
18. Trouble 1987
19. Paint, Gold, and Blood 1989
20. Anything for a Quiet Life (short stories) 1990
21. The Queen against Karl Mullen 1992
Synopses (Both Series & ‘Stand-alone’ Titles)
Published by House of Stratus
After The Fine Weather
When Laura Hart travels to Austria to visit her brother, vice-consul of Lienz in the Tyrol, she briefly meets an American who warns her of the mounting political tension. Neo-Nazis are stirring trouble in the province, and xenophobia is rife between the Austrians who control the area and the Italian locals. Then Laura experiences the troubles first-hand, a shocking incident that suggests Hofrat Humbold, leader of the Lienz
government is using some heavy-handed tactics. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he is unwilling to let one little English girl destroy his plans for the largest Nazi move since the war, and Laura makes a dangerous enemy.
Anything For A Quiet Life
Jonas Pickett, lawyer and commissioner of oaths is nearing retirement, but still has lots of energy. However, he leaves the pressure of a London practice behind to set up a new modest office in a quiet seaside resort. He soon finds that he is overwhelmed with clients and some of them involve him in very odd and sometimes dangerous cases. This collection of inter-linked stories tells how these are brought to a conclusion; ranging from an incredible courtroom drama involving a gipsy queen to terrorist thugs who make their demands at gunpoint.
Be Shot For Sixpence
A gripping spy thriller with a deserved reputation. Philip sees an announcement in The Times from an old school friend who has instructed the newspaper to publish only if they don’t hear from him. This sets a trail running through Europe, with much of the action taking place on the Austro-Hungarian border. The Kremlin, defectors, agitators and the People’s Court set the background to a very realistic story that could well have happened …
The Black Seraphim
James Scotland, a young pathologist, decides on a quiet holiday in Melchester, but amid the cathedral town’s quiet medieval atmosphere, he finds a hornet’s nest of church politics, town and country rivalries, and murder. He is called upon to investigate and finds that some very curious alliances between the church, state and business exist. With modern forensic pathology he unravels the unvarnished truth about Melchester, but not before a spot of unexpected romance intervenes.
Blood & Judgement
When the wife of a recently escaped prisoner is found murdered and partially buried near a reservoir, Patrick Petrella, a Metropolitan Police Inspector, is called in. Suspicion falls on the escaped convict, but what could have been his motive? Petrella meets resistance from top detectives at the Yard who would prefer to keep the inspector out of the limelight, but he is determined to solve the mystery with or without their approval.
The Body Of A Girl
Detective Chief Inspector Mercer is called to the scene when a skeleton of a girl is found on Westlaugh Island in the upper reaches of the River Thames. What appears to be a straightforward and routine investigation, however, leads to unexpected events and a string of unlikely characters, including a lawyer and a one armed garage proprietor. Nothing seems to fit together and it seems the sleepy town holds many secrets. The finale involves two nights of dramatic violence and it isn’t until this stage is reached that the twisted truth finally emerges.
Close Quarters
It has been more than a year since Cannon Whyte fell 103 feet from the cathedral gallery, yet unease still casts a shadow over the peaceful lives of the Close’s inhabitants. In an apparently separate incident, head verger Appledown is being persecuted: a spate of anonymous letters and random acts of vandalism imply that he is inefficient and immoral. But then the notes turn threatening, and when Appledown is found dead, Inspector Hazlerigg is called in. Investigations suggest that someone directly connected to the cathedral is responsible, and it is up to Hazlerigg to get to the heart of the corruption.
The Crack In The Teacup
Barhaven is on the south coast within commuting distance from London. It is, however, a fairly sleepy place and it seems incredulous that it could be the kind of town where the local councillors could manage to line their own pockets. However, there is something odd about the borough engineers behaviour, and it seems strange that the owner of the local amusement park is unknown, and the Town Clerk himself is acting peculiarly. Enter a young lawyer, who finds himself at the centre of a major campaign against racketeering. The public and the press become involved and it ends with a twist that is totally unexpected.
Death Has Deep Roots
This is a detective and trial story with a complicated plot that will grip the reader. Victoria Lamartine is on trial for the murder of her supposed lover, whom she is accused of having stabbed. There are only five suspects including Lamartine. But evidence that doesn’t fit the police theory of the crime has been ignored, whilst all of the damming evidence is presented in isolation. Intriguingly, whilst the murder was committed in England, all of the suspects somehow have a past connection with France and its wartime underground. However, there now appears to be links to gold smuggling and it is not immediately clear how all of the different pieces of evidence fit together. As always, Gilbert neatly takes the reader to a satisfying final twist and conclusion.
Death In Captivity
A suspected informer is found dead in a collapsed section of an escape tunnel being dug in a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy. So as to protect the tunnel the prisoners decide to move the body to another that has already been abandoned. But then the fascist captors declare the death to be murder and determine to investigate and execute the officer they suspect was responsible. It therefore becomes a race against time to find the true culprit and Captain Henry "Cuckoo" Goyles, a former headmaster, master tunneller and sometime amateur detective takes on the case.
The Doors Open
One night on a commuter train, Paddy Yeatman-Carter sees a man attempting suicide. Intervening, he prevents the man from going through with it. However, the very next day the same man is found dead, and Paddy believes the circumstances to be extremely suspicious. Roping in his friend and lawyer, Nap Rumbold, he determines to discover the truth. They become increasingly suspicious of the dead man’s employers: the Stalagmite Insurance Company, who appear to hire some very dangerous staff.
The Dust And The Heat
Oliver Nugent is a young Armoured Corps officer in the year 1945. Taking on a near derelict pharmaceutical firm, he determines to rebuild it and make it a success. He encounters some ruthless opposition, and counteracts with some fairly unscrupulous methods of his own. It seems no one is above blackmail and all is deemed fair in big business battles. Then a threat: apparently from German sources it alludes to a time when Oliver was in charge of an SS camp, jeopardizing his company and all that he has worked for.
The Empty House
Dr. Alexander Wolfe, a top genetic scientist – a key figure in British Biological Warfare Research - seemingly plunges over a cliff in his car. His body is never recovered and it emerges his life was recently insured for a considerable sum. Accordingly, Peter Manciple, an insurance loss adjuster from a fairly cautious firm, is sent to investigate. There is romance, possible gang involvement in arson, and a potential job offer in store as Peter sets out to find out if Wolfe is really dead in a most dangerous and complicated mission.
The End Game
The London Regional Crime Squad, is trying to nail a financial empire involved with organised crime and drug smuggling. David Morgan goes undercover and is hired by a travel company to act as a tour guide around Europe, but is in fact being used as a drug mule. Eventually, he also finds himself posing as a homeless vagrant in order to track down a former employee of the financial empire who knows of the whereabouts of incriminating documents. This is a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ operation with twists and which ranges from London to Florence.
The Etruscan Net
Robert Broke runs a small gallery on the Via de Benci and is an authority on Etruscan terracotta. A man who keeps himself to himself, he is the last person to become mixed up in anything risky. But when two men arrive in Florence, Broke’s world turns upside down as he becomes involved in a ring of spies, the mafiosi and fraud involving Etruscan antiques. When he finds himself in prison on a charge of manslaughter, the net appears to be closing in rapidly, and Broke must fight for his innocence and his life.
Fear To Tread
The story of how Mr. Weatherall, the headmaster of a school, but otherwise an ordinary man, was introduced to a huge nationwide black market operation. It seems that anything goes so as to ensure profits and the continuance of the fraud in what amounts to crime on a vast and o
rganised scale. Moreover, was the victim run over by a train before, or after, he died? And can Mr. Weatherall succeed in getting to the heart of the matter in a one man battle against such odds?
Flashpoint
Will Dylan is an electoral favourite – intelligent, sharp and good-looking, he is the government’s new golden boy. Jonas Killey is a small-time lawyer – determined, uncompromising and obsessed, he is hounding Dylan in the hope of bringing him into disrepute. Believing he has information that can connect Dylan with an illegal procedure during a trade union merger, he starts to spread the word, provoking a top-level fluttering. At the crucial time of a general election, no government can afford bad press. Jonas suddenly finds himself pursued by those who want to keep him quiet, but he is determined that the truth will be heard.
Game Without Rules
Mr. Calder lived with a golden deerhound named Rasselas in a cottage in Kent. Mr. Behrens lives with his aunt and keeps bees. No one would in the least suspect that the pair are in fact agents for the British Joint Services Standing Committee and they are often tasked with jobs that no one else can take on – simply because of the extreme nature of the action needed. They are dangerous – and they are watched. Their adventures in this series of thrillers show the author to have a clear grasp of counterintelligence operations. Written with Gilbert’s usual dry wit, panache and style, the suspense is at times killing!
Into Battle
Luke Pagan is stationed in Portsmouth to keep an eye on Zeppelin flights. He discovers a British Naval officer doing exactly the same. Seemingly, there is a German spy ring operating with a view to directing the Zeppelins so they can keep an eye on the British fleet, although at this time its identity is unknown. Moreover, at the start of World War I, two ships are blown up and the head of counterintelligence orders Luke to carry out surveillance on the suspected British Officer. This in turn leads to the uncovering of an Irish terrorist plot bent on throwing off British rule by any means possible. The Irish have infiltrated the dockyard. It is clear there is an international conspiracy at work which turns out to be run by a German: Krieger. Luke finds himself in a race against time to identify all of the espionage and terrorist activities – or risk Britain losing the war.
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