The Empty House: Difference between revisions
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Written with Gilbert's usual urbane and understated style, the events mostly take place in the [[West Country]] of southwestern England, around the small cities and moors of [[Exmoor]] and [[Dartmoor]] and its extremely dangerous seacoast. | Written with Gilbert's usual urbane and understated style, the events mostly take place in the [[West Country]] of southwestern England, around the small cities and moors of [[Exmoor]] and [[Dartmoor]] and its extremely dangerous seacoast. | ||
'''The Empty House''' begins with the apparent death of Alexander Wolfe, a genius-level biologist working at the Biological Warfare Research Station under the close supervision of the Army's Western Command Headquarters at [[Exeter]]. His car has plunged, apparently accidentally, off a cliff far from the main roads into the churning waters of the [[Celtic Sea]] below, waters so turbulent that no thought is even given to trying to recover the car or his body. Wolfe has recently taken out a large, and unusual, insurance policy that specifies that if his body is ever lost at sea and never recovered, he is to be presumed dead and his sister shall be paid a large amount of money. The unhappy insurance underwriters send a young but highly qualified adjuster, Peter Manciple, to look into the peculiar circumstances of Wolfe's disappearance and to recommend whether the claim should be paid or not. A personable young man, Peter spends the next couple of weeks moving from town to town and one overnight stay to the next, meeting a variety of interesting people and gradually coming to a conclusion as to what has happened to Alexander Wolfe. Even for Gilbert, a writer who was comfortable writing many types of thrillers and mysteries, '''The Empty House''' contains an unusual number of disparate elements: there are domestic scenes; chases and violence on the moors; cross-country [[John Buchan|Buchanesque]] escapes; sympathetic but murderous Israeli agents; even more murderous Palestinian agents; stolid policemen; clever lawyers; affable innkeepers; shrewd schoolmasters; relentless Army soldiers and counter-agents; | '''The Empty House''' begins with the apparent death of Alexander Wolfe, a genius-level biologist working at the Biological Warfare Research Station under the close supervision of the Army's Western Command Headquarters at [[Exeter]]. His car has plunged, apparently accidentally, off a cliff far from the main roads into the churning waters of the [[Celtic Sea]] below, waters so turbulent that no thought is even given to trying to recover the car or his body. Wolfe has recently taken out a large, and unusual, insurance policy that specifies that if his body is ever lost at sea and never recovered, he is to be presumed dead and his sister shall be paid a large amount of money. The unhappy insurance underwriters send a young but highly qualified adjuster, Peter Manciple, to look into the peculiar circumstances of Wolfe's disappearance and to recommend whether the claim should be paid or not. A personable young man, Peter spends the next couple of weeks moving from town to town and one overnight stay to the next, meeting a variety of interesting people and gradually coming to a conclusion as to what has happened to Alexander Wolfe. Even for Gilbert, a writer who was comfortable writing many types of thrillers and mysteries, '''The Empty House''' contains an unusual number of disparate elements: there are domestic scenes; chases and violence on the moors; cross-country [[John Buchan|Buchanesque]] escapes; sympathetic but murderous Israeli agents; even more murderous Palestinian agents; stolid policemen; clever lawyers; affable innkeepers; shrewd schoolmasters; relentless Army soldiers and counter-agents; and unexpected shifts from one apparent sort of story to the next. In the end, in one final surprise, Manciple, delivers his report to his employers, rejects an offer from the Army to join its counter-intelligence group, and goes off to become a schoolmaster at [[Blundell's School]]. | ||
There is, nevertheless, a sharp edge to the entire story that is entirely in keeping with what one of Gilbert's American editors said about him after his death in 2006, many years after the publication of ''Flash Point'': | There is, nevertheless, a sharp edge to the entire story that is entirely in keeping with what one of Gilbert's American editors said about him after his death in 2006, many years after the publication of ''Flash Point'': | ||
Revision as of 14:42, 5 September 2020
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The Empty House is a novel of suspense by the British author Michael Gilbert published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1978 and in the United States by Harper & Row in 1979. It was Gilbert's 19th novel and does not fall into one neat category. Over his long career, Gilbert wrote many kinds of novels, from police procedurals to espionage thrillers, from courtroom dramas to chase and adventure, from cathedral and public school mysteries to tales of municipal corruption. Like the works of his near contemporaries Victor Canning and Ross Thomas, many of his works examined the amorality and sometimes lethal reactions of those in high government positions when confronted by events that run contrary to their wishes. The Empty House combines many of these elements in sometimes unexpected and startlingly violent ways.
Plot
Written with Gilbert's usual urbane and understated style, the events mostly take place in the West Country of southwestern England, around the small cities and moors of Exmoor and Dartmoor and its extremely dangerous seacoast.
The Empty House begins with the apparent death of Alexander Wolfe, a genius-level biologist working at the Biological Warfare Research Station under the close supervision of the Army's Western Command Headquarters at Exeter. His car has plunged, apparently accidentally, off a cliff far from the main roads into the churning waters of the Celtic Sea below, waters so turbulent that no thought is even given to trying to recover the car or his body. Wolfe has recently taken out a large, and unusual, insurance policy that specifies that if his body is ever lost at sea and never recovered, he is to be presumed dead and his sister shall be paid a large amount of money. The unhappy insurance underwriters send a young but highly qualified adjuster, Peter Manciple, to look into the peculiar circumstances of Wolfe's disappearance and to recommend whether the claim should be paid or not. A personable young man, Peter spends the next couple of weeks moving from town to town and one overnight stay to the next, meeting a variety of interesting people and gradually coming to a conclusion as to what has happened to Alexander Wolfe. Even for Gilbert, a writer who was comfortable writing many types of thrillers and mysteries, The Empty House contains an unusual number of disparate elements: there are domestic scenes; chases and violence on the moors; cross-country Buchanesque escapes; sympathetic but murderous Israeli agents; even more murderous Palestinian agents; stolid policemen; clever lawyers; affable innkeepers; shrewd schoolmasters; relentless Army soldiers and counter-agents; and unexpected shifts from one apparent sort of story to the next. In the end, in one final surprise, Manciple, delivers his report to his employers, rejects an offer from the Army to join its counter-intelligence group, and goes off to become a schoolmaster at Blundell's School.
There is, nevertheless, a sharp edge to the entire story that is entirely in keeping with what one of Gilbert's American editors said about him after his death in 2006, many years after the publication of Flash Point:
"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.".[1]
Gilbert himself was a most Establishment figure, frequently writing about other Establishment figures, and was usually firmly on the side of England's police forces and shadowy (though lethal) Intelligent departments. But perhaps because of his many years of legal practice, he was also equally at home in filling his narratives with other types of characters: sleazy strip-club owners, tough and semi-crooked policemen, hard-bitten union officials, factory workers, relentless and unscrupulous Intelligent agents, and a wide variety of hard-boiled villains and crooks from small-time burglars and con men to gangster chieftains.
Reception
Newgate Callendar, . Nevertheless a strong, well‐written book.[2]
Notes
- ↑ Douglas Greene of Crippen & Landrau, quoted in The New York Times, 15 February 2006
- ↑ The New York Times, 19 January 1975 at https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/01/19/76329705.html?pageNumber=251