Michael Gilbert
Michael Francis Gilbert, (July 17, 1912 – February 8, 2006), was a British writer of mysteries and thrillers who wrote as Michael Gilbert. He was a lawyer in London for many years and at one point had Raymond Chandler as his client. He had a very long and very productive writing career, beginning with his first novel, Close Quarters, in 1946 and continuing through 1999 with Over and Out. He wrote almost every sort of mystery and thriller, perhaps spreading himself too thin over too many fields to achieve the reputation that many critics felt he deserved. He wrote police procedurals, spy novels and short stories, courtroom dramas, classical mysteries, adventure thrillers, crime novels, and almost every possible combination of these, all with the same competence, lean narrative style, and dry, detached wit. "Michael was an exceptionally fine storyteller, but he's hard to classify," said one of his British publishers after his death. "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]
Perhaps among his very best books are two collections of short stories about two gentlemanly but exceedingly hard-boiled British counterspies, Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, "middle-aged cut-throats" as one of their adversaries bitterly refers to them. One of his earliest novels, Smallbone Deceased, is also highly regarded by many. [2]
After graduating with honors from the University of London in 1937 he served with the Royal Horse Artillery in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He was captured in 1943 and spent time in a prison-of-war camp in Italy; this experience served as the basis for one of his early novels, Death in Captivity. He also wrote numerous plays for the stage, radio, and television, as well as some non-fiction.
Gilbert was made a C.B.E. (commander, order of the British Empire) in 1980 and was received a Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for "lifetime achievement" in 1994; the Mystery Writers of America named him a "grandmaster" in 1988. Quoted in his New York Times obituary, Gilbert's last publisher, Kent Carroll of Carroll & Graf, said of him: "He was always so utterly urbane and civilized. He wrote about a sordid world from the perspective of a gentleman. There was something comforting as well as exciting about that.[3]
Bibliography
Mystery novels
- Close Quarters (1947)
- They Never Looked Inside (1947) [U.S. He Didn't Mind Danger (1948)]
- The Doors Open (1949)
- Smallbone Deceased (1950)
- Death Has Deep Roots (1951)
- Death in Captivity (1952)
- Fear to Tread (1953)
- Sky High (1955) [U.S. The Country-House Burglar]
- Be Shot for Sixpence (1956)
- Blood and Judgement (1959)
- After the Fine Weather (1963)
- The Crack in the Teacup (1966)
- The Dust and the Heat (1967) [U.S. Overdrive (1968)]
- The Etruscan Net (1969) [U.S. The Family Tomb (1969)]
- The Body of a Girl (1972)
- The Ninety-second Tiger (1973)
- Flash Point (1974)
- The Night of the Twelfth (1976)
- The Empty House (1978)
- Death of a Favourite Girl (1980) [U.S. The Killing of Katie Steelstock]
- The Final Throw (1982) [U.S. End-Game]
- The Black Seraphim (1983)
- The Long Journey Home (1985)
- Trouble (1987)
- Paint, Gold and Blood (1989)
- The Queen Against Karl Mullen (1991)
- Roller-Coaster (1993)
- Ring of Terror (1995)
- Into Battle (1997)
- Over and Out (1998)
Collections of short stories
- Game Without Rules (1968)
- Stay of Execution (1971)
- Amateur in Violence (1973)
- Petrella at Q (1977)
- Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens (1982)
- Young Petrella (1988)
- Anything for a Quiet Life (1990)
- The Man Who Hated Banks (1997)
- The Mathematics of Murder (2000)
- The Curious Conspiracy (2002)
Notes
See also
External links
- http://www.mysterylist.com/gilbert.htm appraisal of all of Gilbert's books
- Telegraph obituary