“Yes,” said Hazlerigg. “I think that’s it all right. I think that’s how it must have worked. Mrs. Roper’s statement – nerves, imagination or self-defence?”
“A bit of all three. Mostly self-defence. She saw the red light at once. If Vicky didn’t do it, then she was automatically next choice. Also she had a bad record. She had only to invent the mythical thud – or so she thought – to clear herself. Only she ought to have realised that if you are going to tell a lie which is to stand up under cross-examination, you’ve got to think it out pretty carefully. She didn’t do herself much good with that thud.”
“No. After that I suppose Camino and Sainte worked together to delay the arrival of the doctor, long enough, anyway, to conceal the difference between a death at ten- twenty and a death at ten-forty.”
“Yes, that’s about it.”
Silence fell again.
“How’s Nap?” said Hazlerigg.
“Fine,” said McCann, “he’s fine. The wound’s absolutely healed.”
But he only said that absently. His real mind was still turning over the case.
“Do you think,” Hazlerigg said, “that they meant her to hang?”
“I’m sure they didn’t,” said McCann. “The most they expected was for her to be found guilty under provocation – and either pardoned or given a nominal sentence for manslaughter. That, incidentally, was the line of legal defence that Sainte bespoke and paid for – and with all possible respect to everyone, if Vicky hadn’t been so determined to change her lawyers, it’s just about what would have happened.”
“Yes,” said Hazlerigg again. “You seem to have got everything tied up. All we’ve got to do now is to catch them. Then we can start all over again, trying to explain it to a jury. Not just the straight bits but the odd little difficulties, too. What’s worrying you now?” he added, for McCann still seemed to be turning something over in his mind.
“It’s just this,” said McCann. “I’m fairly sure now that that’s what did happen. It all fits together reasonably well. But there’s one thing I can’t understand at all. Why did Sainte – or Marquis, I suppose I should call him – ever allow the girl near him? I know that I suggested that he wanted to keep an eye on her, and that may be true, but look at the risk he was running. It only needed an acquaintance from France to come into the hotel and address him as Marquis, in Vicky’s presence – and the fat would have been in the fire. Perhaps the risk was small, but why run it at all?”
“Criminals,” said Hazlerigg, “are people with extraordinarily acute apprehensions. They revisit the scene of the crime to see if they have overlooked some obscure clue, and a blundering policeman, who doesn’t like the look of them, arrests them on suspicion. They take wild precautions to guard against imaginary dangers, and the precautions themselves lead to their undoing, long after the crime has become undetectable. In short, they make mistakes; which is as well, for if they never made mistakes we should never catch them.”
Plan[1]
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.
T
he 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 organised 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 himse
lf in a race against time to identify all of the espionage and terrorist activities – or risk Britain losing the war.
The Killing Of Katie Steelstock
Written as a police procedural in the best traditions of the ‘Golden Age’ writers. Certainly one of Michael Gilberts finest in this particular sphere. A TV actress is murdered and it would seem that the alleged perpetrator has been framed. As the investigation progresses and evidence mounts the reader is not fooled into taking the wrong path and coming to an incorrect conclusion, but that is not to say the ending is perhaps one of the most ingenious and surprising to be found in this genre. Full of detail and strong rounded characters.
The Long Journey Home
John Benedict is presumed dead in a plane crash, but in reality survives and is leading a quiet carefree life wandering around southern Italy. All is well until one of life’s tragedies occurs and he comes up against the Mafia, then the Union Course in France and executives of a multi-national computer corporation in London. He becomes a fugitive but with a purpose, and manages to attract some singular allies to help his quest; a monk, a smuggler, a porn-shop owner and a woman from his past. The novel comes to a truly stunning and grisly conclusion as Benedict uses his ingenuity to bring about the final showdown.
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