Anything for a Quiet Life
Anything for a Quiet Life and Other New Mystery Stories is a collection of short stories by the British writer Michael Gilbert published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton in 1990 and in the United States by Carroll & Graf the same year. All nine stories had previously appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. All of them take place in a fictional English coastal town called Shackleton-on-Sea, which is situated in the south of England not far from Brighton and Hove. They feature the activities of a small law firm called Jonas Pickett, Solicitor and Commission for Oaths, recently started by Pickett, a retired lawyer from London. There are three other main characters, his partner, Sabrina Mountjoy, their secretary, Claire Easterbrook, and a general handyman, Sam Conybeare, "a mountain of a man who had once performed remarkable feats of strength and daring in a circus."
In the first story Mr. Calder, one of the two protagonists of Gilbert's Mr. Calder & Mr. Behrens and Game without Rules, makes a brief appearance. In the same story, Pickett also meets a police superintendent named Queen, as well as a headmaster named Major Appleby. Inspector Queen was a character in many of the Ellery Queen mystery novels by Ellery Queen, and Inspector Appleby was the lead character in many novels by Michael Innes.
In the second story passing mention is made of Chief Superintendent Morrisey, head of the London District Regional Crime Squad, a character in a number of works by Gilbert.
Stories in order
- Anything for a Quiet Life, page 7
- Black Bob, page 28
- Vivat Regina, page 50
- The Reign of Terror, page 73
- The Admiral, page 99