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Michael Francis Gilbert
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Smallbone Deceased: A London Mystery (British Library Crime Classics Book 0) Kindle Edition

by Michael Gilbert (Author), Martin Edwards (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,212 ratings
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Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.

"A first-rate job"—New York Times

"A classic of the genre"—Guardian

Horniman, Birley and Craine is a highly respected legal firm with clients drawn from the highest in the land. When a deed box in the office is opened to reveal a corpse, the threat of scandal promises to wreak havoc on the firm's reputation—especially as the murder looks like an inside job. The partners and staff of the firm keep a watchful and suspicious eye on their colleagues, as Inspector Hazlerigg sets out to solve the mystery of who Mr. Smallbone was—and why he had to die.

Since its initial publication in 1950, Smallbone Deceased has been lauded as a perfect British mystery as well as a historical fiction bestseller. Written with style, pace, and wit, this is a masterpiece by one of the finest writers of traditional British crime books since the Second World War.

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  1. Part of series
    British Library Crime Classics
  2. Print length
    236 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Poisoned Pen Press
  6. Publication date
    June 4, 2019
  7. File size
    2616 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  11. See all details
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From the Publisher

Who was Mr. Smallbone and why he had to die? Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert A blazing body last seen running in the battlements of Castle Skull. Castle Skull John Dickson Carr The scientific method may be the only answer to solve this crime.Measure of Malice by Martin Edwards A riveting portrait of the psychology of a murderer. Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith. Crossed skis means danger ahead... Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac A collection of mysteries that explore the darker side of the holiday season. by ECR Lorac
Smallbone Deceased Castle Skull Measure of Malice Portrait of a Murderer Crossed Skis Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories
Customer Reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
2,212
4.2 out of 5 stars
347
4.2 out of 5 stars
260
4.0 out of 5 stars
410
4.5 out of 5 stars
150
4.3 out of 5 stars
754
Price $9.99 $14.99 $14.99 $10.75 $11.26 $13.67
Golden Age of Detective Stories ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Police Procedural ✓ ✓ ✓
Collection or Anthology ✓ ✓
A Touch of Horror ✓

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Perhaps the best living master of the classic English murder mystery." ― The New Yorker

About the Author

Michael Francis Gilbert CBE TD was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07S45PSSR
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Poisoned Pen Press; Reprint edition (June 4, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 4, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2616 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 236 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,212 ratings

About the author

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Michael Francis Gilbert

Michael Francis Gilbert

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
2,212 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Hal Jordan
5.0 out of 5 stars Agatha Christie meets P.G. Wodehouse
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020
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I found this mystery very enjoyable both for the mystery and for the semi-comic writing. It was first published in 1950 and is set in the world of London legal firms, with which Michael Gilbert was intimately familiar.

Moves along at a good clip--only 261 pages in the British Library Crime Classics paperback edition I read--and provides a fair number of clues that readers more discerning than I am might find sufficient to deduce the murderer. If the book has a flaw, it's that the motive of the murderer is not entirely plausible.

As a rule, I prefer pre-World War II British mysteries to postwar ones. The dreariness of Britain in the immediate postwar period can be a bit of a downer. Not a problem with this novel, though. In fact, given the references to some events that happened several years prior to the publication date of 1950, I wonder whether it's possible that Gilbert wrote the book during the war and its publication was postponed, perhaps because of postwar paper shortages.

Martin Edwards provides an excellent introduction, which gives an overview of Gilbert's career.
22 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent vintage mystery
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2023
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This is an interesting vintage mystery. Far different than those published these days, but still very entertaining. The one drawback, in my opinion, was the author's tendency to refer to the characters sometimes by their last names and sometimes by their first name. Sometimes it wasn't clear who exactly was involved in a given passage.
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Limelite
5.0 out of 5 stars Wit That Doesn't Quit
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2020
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Sharp, witty as hell, and perfectly puzzling is Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert, a classic British crime novel from the mid-century.

Set in post-WWII Britain, the book sparkles with sardonic remarks, and stars a full cast of engaging, or distrustful, or reliable, or secretive characters, all of whom, major and minor, are as fully drawn as any Agatha Christie tale. Quaintly typical of the era, gender roles are highly segregated into male (lawyers) and female (secretaries) divisions. Other than that, the feel of the book is fairly contemporary.

The plot is complex and the motive device may seem confusing to some readers because of all the legalese involved. But Gilbert is very good at explaining terms and conditions, in spite of the language barrier that professional legal jargon and non-"English" speaking readers on the western side of the Atlantic may find unfamiliar.

You may think, after those remarks, that the novel is dry and boring, only to be enjoyed by solicitors and barristers. It isn't, and this reader appreciated the honesty with which the author revealed the identity of the perp. For an intelligent, laugh-out-loud-funny and well paced read, you can do no better if well-mannered British detective fiction is what you like served with your tea.
11 people found this helpful
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Nicholas Mitchell
3.0 out of 5 stars Not overwhelmed
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2019
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Good character development. Unresolved plot line.
4 people found this helpful
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Jonesy
4.0 out of 5 stars A little different in a good way
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2020
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I will be hunting up more books by this author. The reader gets a pretty clear picture of this particular law firm and all the personalities working there. There is sly humor, which I always enjoy in a novel, and we are led toward one character after another until the final reveal, so that we see the process of elimination. Both the police investigator and the private investigator were likable characters and for once they were cooperative rather than antagonistic rivals. The end was well done, with the plot points tied up nicely. This book is probably best read by those who enjoy writers like Dorothy Sayer, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, and for that group I recommend it highly.
24 people found this helpful
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Patto
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeds, torts, trusts & murder
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2015
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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.
26 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A charming whodunnit from the mid twentieth century
Reviewed in India on April 3, 2021
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A beautifully crafted murder mystery set in post war London. Michael Gilbert excels in characterisation, intricate plotting, lovely prose and wit, all set in the world of solicitors, which is painted with realism and humour.
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Kimberly G9
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic genius!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2020
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A brilliant classic mystery. On par with...possibly exceeding??... Agatha Christie. The feel, the atmosphere, the sense of propriety hearkens from a time long gone, but missed. By me, anyway. I love this time period and the non-feminist office dynamics. I love the pecking order and the comfort everyone takes from knowing where they stand and doing it very well. A great bit of cheeky escapism. I was clearly meant to live in the 40/50s!
2 people found this helpful
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J. DOUGLAS-SMITH
5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Masterpiece!
Reviewed in Australia on September 14, 2021
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It's no wonder this novel is in the UK Crime Writers' Association and Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time; it's an absolute masterpiece! Once again, Michael Gilbert manages to combine a whodunit with a thriller that reads beautifully. His use of prose is second to none and reminds me of Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey at their very best. The plot is exquisitely executed in the fair play tradition of the Golden Era of Detective Fiction, but the characterisation of the main players is even more entertaining. This is all combined with a good natured satire of the legal profession for good measure.
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sigrunT
5.0 out of 5 stars Eine echte Herausforderung für jeden, der nicht aus einem englischen Anwaltsbüro stammt.
Reviewed in Germany on August 17, 2015
Verified Purchase
Dieses Buch ist wunderbar, ein herrlicher älterer Krimi, der kurz nach dem 2. Weltkrieg spielt, voll von englischer Spleenigkeit und trockenem Humor, sehr gutem Plott und fair erzählt. Ich bin zwar durch das Ende sehr überrascht worden, aber das war so gut vorbereitet, dass man hätte darauf kommen können - und so gut geschrieben, dass man eben nicht darauf kam.
Das Buch wäre allerdings sehr schwer zu lesen gewesen, wenn es nicht in dem wunderbaren Verlag Rue Morgue Press erschienen wäre, d.h. auf der ersten Seite des Buches war eine Liste der handelnden Personen mit eine kurzen Charakterisierung, die das Lesen sehr erleichterte. Sollten Sie eine andere Ausgabe des Buches haben, ist es sehr zu empfehlen sich die Liste selbst zu fertigen.
Nicht leicht zu lesen war es aber trotzdem, weil es in einer Firma von Solicitern spielte, sodass es schon Konzentration erforderte, den Handlungsabläufen und den rechtlichen Problemen zu folgen, wenn man insoweit keine Erfahrungen hat. Mir war das nicht ganz neu, weil ich gerne Bücher -und nicht nur Krimis- gelesen habe, die im englischen Rechtssystem angesiedelt waren, z.B von Cyril Hare, Henry Cecil u.a. , aber leicht war es trotzdem nicht. Aber die Mühe wurde mit einem großen Genuss belohnt.
7 people found this helpful
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Alexander Roberts
4.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling
Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2024
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A good story. never boring. keeps you interested,
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