Tangled Web UK Review December 2008
A Pity About the Girl and Other Stories (Hardcover) by
Michael Gilbert
hbk out November 08
Published by Hale
at £18.99
Classic crime expert John Cooper has edited and introduced the latest posthumous collection of stories by Michael Gilbert, a crime writer who was versatile and prolific, but above all superbly accomplished. I agree with Cooper that Gilbert’s novels and stories were ‘always elegant, credible and entertaining’, and this gathering of fourteen tales which span almost the whole of Gilbert’s long career (the first appeared in 1951, the last 45 years later) provides ample evidence for the claim. A number of Gilbert’s recurrent characters are featured; for instance, a favourite of mine, the lawyer Henry Bohun, appears in ‘What Happened at Castelbonato?’ There is a ghost story and a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, as well as a good example of Gilbert’s early work set in the London back streets: ‘The Brave Don’t Talk’ is characteristically slick, swift and satisfying. Gilbert often set his stories outside England, and locations utilised in this collection include France, Italy, Germany and South America. If you like traditional mystery fiction and haven’t sampled Michael Gilbert previously, you have a treat in store. This book is as good a place as any to start discovering the pleasures of his work.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
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