Smallbone Deceased Inspector Hazlerigg edition by Michael Gilbert Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
Download As PDF : Smallbone Deceased Inspector Hazlerigg edition by Michael Gilbert Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks 
Horniman, Birley and Craine are a highly respected legal firm with clients reaching to the highest in the land. They use a system of keeping important documents in deed-boxes and when one of them is found to contain the remains of a certain Mr. Smallbone, the threat of scandal reaches their innermost psyche. Even worse, the police now suspect that the murder was an inside job. Suspicion falls on everyone and each member of staff keeps a wary eye open. Gilbert is both authoritative in his narrative and writes with such style and pace that ‘Smallbone Deceased’ is regarded as one of his best.
The Author Born in Lincolnshire, England, Michael Francis Gilbert graduated in law from the University of London in 1937, shortly after which he first spent some time teaching at a prep-school which was followed by six years serving with the Royal Horse Artillery. During World War II he was captured following service in North Africa and Italy, and his prisoner-of-war experiences later leading to the writing of the acclaimed novel ‘Death in Captivity’ in 1952.
After the war, Gilbert worked as a solicitor in London, but his writing continued throughout his legal career and in addition to novels he wrote stage plays and scripts for radio and television. He is, however, best remembered for his novels, which have been described as witty and meticulously-plotted espionage and police procedural thrillers, but which exemplify realism.
HRF Keating stated that ‘Smallbone Deceased’ was amongst the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. "The plot," wrote Keating, "is in every way as good as those of Agatha Christie at her best as neatly dovetailed, as inherently complex yet retaining a decent credibility, and as full of cunningly-suggested red herrings." It featured Chief Inspector Hazlerigg, who went on to appear in later novels and short stories, and another series was built around Patrick Petrella, a London based police constable (later promoted) who was fluent in four languages and had a love for both poetry and fine wine. Other memorable characters around which Gilbert built stories included Calder and Behrens. They are elderly but quite amiable agents, who are nonetheless ruthless and prepared to take on tasks too much at the dirty end of the business for their younger colleagues. They are brought out of retirement periodically upon receiving a bank statement containing a code.
Much of Michael Gilbert’s writing was done on the train as he travelled from home to his office in London "I always take a latish train to work," he explained in 1980, "and, of course, I go first class. I have no trouble in writing because I prepare a thorough synopsis beforehand.". After retirement from the law, however, he nevertheless continued and also reviewed for ‘The Daily Telegraph’, as well as editing ‘The Oxford Book of Legal Anecdotes’.
Gilbert was appointed CBE in 1980. Generally regarded as ‘one of the elder statesmen of the British crime writing fraternity, he was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association and in 1988 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, before receiving the Lifetime ‘Anthony’ Achievement award at the 1990 Boucheron in London.
Michael Gilbert died in 2006, aged ninety three, and was survived by his wife and their two sons and five daughters.
Smallbone Deceased Inspector Hazlerigg edition by Michael Gilbert Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
What a delectable setting for murder: a dry-as-dust law office where records are kept with meticulous care and aristocrats are among the select clientele. The body of a trustee is found in an air-tight deed box. This is shocking both because Mr. Smallbone has been murdered and because the deeds that should be there are gone. The firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine simply does not lose documents!This is 1950, before the age of digital files, and the document storage system invented by deceased partner Abel Horniman is wonderfully clever as well as ludicrously complex. It comes in for considerable ridicule by a certain satirical staff member. The office humor in this book is irresistible. Michael Gilbert's style overall is marked by dry wit and a delight in droll dialog.
Inspector Hazlerigg is in charge of the case and conducts a methodical investigation. He also has occasional bursts of brilliant insight triggered by haphazard events. He is one of the earliest realistic British policemen in suspense fiction, according to the afterword in the edition I have.
Hazlerigg takes one of the junior lawyers into his confidence as his inside man. Henry Bohun is not a suspect, being a brand new employee. Hazlerigg thinks Bohun's brainpower and his background in statistics might be useful. This young man is an interesting character. He sleeps only two hours a night, without any ill effects. This gives him a far longer day than anyone else enjoys, and he fills the time with reading, long walks and a second job as a night watchmen! He and Hazlerigg tend to make the same deductions and come to the same conclusions by slightly different routes.
Smallbone Deceased is considered Gilbert's best novel. I certainly found it charming, witty and original. Gilbert's himself was a lawyer, and only a lawyer could have infused his story with so much authentic detail and such biting portraits of lawyers and their staff. I've just ordered Close Quarters, where Inspector Hazlerigg first appears.
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Smallbone Deceased Inspector Hazlerigg edition by Michael Gilbert Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews
Henry Bohun, WW2 veteran, former statistician, insomniac and newly licensed lawyer has joined the small, prestigious firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine. His first firm event is a memorial lunch for founding partner Abel Horniman, recently deceased from a heart condition. Not a very lively way to begin, but that is soon cured when the weeks-dead body of firm client Mr. Smallbone is discovered in a sealed deed box.
Enter Inspector Hazlerigg and his colleagues, who request Bohun's assistance with inside intelligence. It is apparent that the murder was an inside job, leaving as suspects six lawyers, five secretaries and three staff members.
Like many traditional mysteries of its time, SMALLBONE DECEASED is a "fair play" story. All the clues are provided and the painstaking reader can have a good notion of whodunnit and how. Gilbert provides a drawing of the offices, details about schedules, alibis, habits and clue-laden conversations. Hazlerigg's investigation and Bohun's intelligence gleaned from his work and contacts with his colleagues each provide pieces of the puzzle.
Unlike most modern mysteries, this is a short book without a great deal of detailed character development. This is not to say that the characters are cardboard cutouts. Gilbert provides a few details that, together with conversations, allow the reader to use his or her own imagination to picture the individuals easily.
Gilbert's writing style is dryly humorous. Take this passage, in which Bohun is attempting to learn the meaning of the Horniman Case Index Card method, a system that reduces each action in every case to a series of cryptic codes on an index card
"Henry Bohun, having dismissed Miss Porter, was once more staring thoughtfully at the little stack of cards on the desk in front of him, trying to relate them in some comprehensible manner to his allotted share of that morning's post. The more he read them the less they seemed to mean, but finding that there were fifty-two of them he dealt our four bridge hands and came to the conclusion that he could make three no trumps without difficulty on his holding, which included such obvious winners as "The Duchess of Ashby de la Zouche---(questions relating to her claims for Dower)," "Lieutenant-General Fireside's Marriage Settlement No. 3," (his third marriage or his third settlement, Henry wondered), and most promising, "The Reverend the Metropolitan of Albania---Private Affairs.""
This is probably the kind of thing you either love or hate. I love it and I thoroughly enjoyed this small gem of a book.
The pace was a bit slow, but I enjoyed the plot and the characters inhabiting this book. As befitting an English mystery set mainly in a law office, the humor was dry.
Simply one of the best. Original, clever, what's not to like? I'm not going to tell you anything about it.
I liked it all, I haven't read it for years, and it was like greeting a very old friend!! I was also very pleased to receive a brand new copy of the book. I was only expectng a good used copy, and it was a lovely surprise to get a new one.
If you like Brit wit, you might enjoy this mystery written in 1950. I love mysteries written in previous decades as you gain insight into how people conversed and what they did and thought about. It is like going back in time. In this mystery, a client of a law firm is missing and his body turns up in the oddest place. All of the employees of this law firm are suspects, including one who died recently. When another body turns up, Scotland Yard suspects the killer is still alive.
You suspect the author is a lawyer, which he is, as he has such a facile command of terms and procedures which adds to the authentic feel of the book. There's not a lot of action, but I didn't mind. I just love reading British repartee. The building on the cover of this book is where some of the action takes place, so the setting is wonderful, too.
This book is listed as one of the British Crime Writer's top 100 mystery novels. I enjoyed it, and read it due to other reviewer's recommendations here. The clues were there to ferret out the murderer, but I just sat back and enjoyed reading how the detectives did it.
4.5 stars
What a delectable setting for murder a dry-as-dust law office where records are kept with meticulous care and aristocrats are among the select clientele. The body of a trustee is found in an air-tight deed box. This is shocking both because Mr. Smallbone has been murdered and because the deeds that should be there are gone. The firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine simply does not lose documents!
This is 1950, before the age of digital files, and the document storage system invented by deceased partner Abel Horniman is wonderfully clever as well as ludicrously complex. It comes in for considerable ridicule by a certain satirical staff member. The office humor in this book is irresistible. Michael Gilbert's style overall is marked by dry wit and a delight in droll dialog.
Inspector Hazlerigg is in charge of the case and conducts a methodical investigation. He also has occasional bursts of brilliant insight triggered by haphazard events. He is one of the earliest realistic British policemen in suspense fiction, according to the afterword in the edition I have.
Hazlerigg takes one of the junior lawyers into his confidence as his inside man. Henry Bohun is not a suspect, being a brand new employee. Hazlerigg thinks Bohun's brainpower and his background in statistics might be useful. This young man is an interesting character. He sleeps only two hours a night, without any ill effects. This gives him a far longer day than anyone else enjoys, and he fills the time with reading, long walks and a second job as a night watchmen! He and Hazlerigg tend to make the same deductions and come to the same conclusions by slightly different routes.
Smallbone Deceased is considered Gilbert's best novel. I certainly found it charming, witty and original. Gilbert's himself was a lawyer, and only a lawyer could have infused his story with so much authentic detail and such biting portraits of lawyers and their staff. I've just ordered Close Quarters, where Inspector Hazlerigg first appears.
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