Death Has Deep Roots
Death Has Deep Roots is the fifth novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. It was published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1951 and in the United States by Harper & Brothers in 1952. It is basically a classical courtroom trial story but with almost equally important thriller elements juxtaposed with the courtroom scenes. Although Inspector Hazlerigg, who had appeared in all of Gilbert's earlier novels as a mostly leading character, plays a role in this story, it is only in two brief appearances, once towards the beginning of the book and once again towards the end. Two of the three main characters in this book are from previous novels, Major Angus McMann (They Never Looked Inside) and Noel Anthony Pontarlier ("Nap") Rumbold (The Doors Open). Nap is the woman's lawyer, and he asks McMann for help. McMann interviews Hazlerigg, who surreptitiously provides him with a name of a person to investigate. Noel Anthony Pontarlier Rumbold ("Nap"), a junior solicitor in his father's London firm. Nap had spent four months on dangerous missions with the French maquis in occupied France during the war and is a Lieutenant-Colonel, D.S.O.
Plot and Title(s)
The war
Anthony Boucher of the New York Times said that "the first 1952 book to reach this reviewer's desk is one which wouldn't disgrace any Best-of-the-Year list" and went on to say that it concerned:
...an important murder trial, with real understanding of courtroom psychology and technique. But the camera eye of the author constantly flashes from this... to the efforts of two likable and believable amateurs detectives who are striving to assemble last-minute evidence for the defense; and their adventures, involving maquisards and collaborators from the past, and gold-smugglers and secret agents of the present, make a thriller as wildly exciting as the courtroom scenes are suavely persuasive. It's hard to recall any technical tour de force of fusion quite so admirably integrated as this. Mr. Gilbert is one of the most accomplished leaders of the new British school of murder writing.[1]
A much later appraisal comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime:
There have been many mystery tales based upon the activities of the French Resistence; few have been good, and fewer stand up to current rereading. This is one of the very best... Scene of the crime is a small London hotel. Counsel of both sides are excellently portrayed. A gripping tale: one of the author's triumphs.[2]
Style and Contents
The style is, in actuality, a
Credibility
As in many crime or mystery stories,.
Notes
- ↑ Criminals at Large, "The New York Times", 6 January 1952 at [1]
- ↑ Jacques Barzun & Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime, Harper & Row, New York, "Second Impression Corrected", 1973, page 208