Michael
Gilbert was a British solicitor, author, schoolteacher and
veteran who, beginning in the 1930s, served with the Royal Horse
Artillery and joined a reserve regiment, the Honourable Artillery
Company, during the Second World War – effectively putting his
writing ambitions on hold for nearly a decade. Gilbert began working
on his first detective novel in 1938, while working as a teacher, but
the wacky shenanigans of the Axis Powers delayed the publication of
Close Quarters (1947) by nine years. So,
while the war postponed his entry into the genre, Gilbert made up for
lost time over the next five decades with twenty-five novels and
several short story collections published between 1947 and 2002.
There were also a number of posthumously published collections of
short stories and radio-plays with The Man Who Couldn't Sleep and
Other Mysteries (2011) being the most recent one. Gilbert's
output covered everything from traditional detective stories and
courtroom dramas to police procedurals and spy-thrillers. A highlight
from his work and my personal favorite is Death
in Captivity (1952), alternatively published as The Danger
Within , which is based on Gilbert's experiences in an Italian POW
camp. One of the best World War II mysteries ever written, but
Smallbone
Deceased (1950), Death
Has Deep Roots (1951), The
Night of the Twelfth (1976) and The
Killing of Katie Steelstock (1980) are generally regarded to
be among his best detective novels. Despite
a nine-year delay, Gilbert ended up being one of the longest-lived
and published Golden Age mystery writers when he died, aged 93, on
February 8, 2006. Michael
Gilbert's apprentice effort, Close Quarters , has been stuck on
the big pile for an ice age and I've always been a little hesitant
about it, because I remember opinions of the book being a bit
dismissive in the late 2000s – comparing it to a glacially slow,
overly elaborate Freeman
Wills Crofts -style novel. So very talky and too much timetabling.
At the time, I only knew of Crofts' tarnished, undeserved reputation
as the mystery writer who cured insomnia, but a lot has changed since
then and we know better now. What I perceived as criticism at the
time was actually a glowing endorsement for a careful,
meticulously-plotted detective story with a croft of alibis. It was
about time I heeded those old recommendations! Close
Quarters entirely takes place inside the confides of a cathedral
close, Melchester Close, which has recently been plagued by a series
of thoroughly unpleasant incidents. Firstly, Canon Whyte had fallen
from the gallery on the roof of the cathedral, " a hundred and
three measured feet ," on to the flagstones below. There was " nothing mysterious or really sensational " about the death
of Canon Whyte, besides it being upsetting for all concerned.
Secondly, the extraordinary persecution of the head verger, Daniel
Appledown. For over a week, the members of the Close community have
been receiving anonymous letters, " typewritten and uniformly
abusive ," decrying the head verger as inefficient and immoral.
More of such messages were left all over the Close. The Dean of
Manchester is convinced the wolf is within the fold, but finds the
thought of getting the police officially involved unpleasant. So he
turns to his young nephew, Bobby, who's a member of the Metropolitan
Police Force and the right hand man of Gilbert's series-detective,
Chief Inspector Hazlerigg. Sergeant
Bobby Pollock comes to Melchester Close to conduct an " extremely
unofficial " inquiry under the guise of a short holiday to visit
his uncle, but he has been there barely a day when Appledown's body
is discovered. Someone bashed his brains in near the shed housing the
electric motor which supplied the power for the famous Melchester
organ. There are an abundance of potential clues, possible red
herrings and plenty of suspects to found within the cathedral close.
Pollock described the scene of the crime and the case ahead, " an
assassin who walked across the grass backwards, clothes which were
too wet, and a bowler hat which was much too dry " and " sixteen
little holes in the ground " – " a case after his own
heart ." Not to forget about the ghost who appeared prematurely!
The cast of suspects, witnesses and other characters is very large
and thankfully the story comes with a dramatis personae of all
the principal clues, which comes with mini-biographies. Something
that should be included in every detective story with a sprawling
cast of characters, but what Gilbert accomplished with all these
characters in regards to their alibis is fascinating. Nearly everyone
appears to possess " carefully, interlocking alibis " and
only one person was not vouched for the whole time by one or more
independent witnesses. Chief Inspector Hazlerigg is not prepared to
go as far as to believe in " a complete canonical conspiracy ,"
but finding an alternative explanation requires some good,
old-fashioned alibi-busting. I
should mention here Close Quarters is erroneously listed in
Robert Adey's Locked Room Murders (1991), " murder in a
guarded area where those present are generally alibied ," which
is probably due to the setting. The Dean points out to Pollock the
reason why he believes the anonymous letter writer is closely
connected to the cathedral is that " after seven o'clock it is
impossible to get in or out of the Close unobserved ," because
of the twelve-foot high walls and the guard posted at the main gate.
A textbook example of the closed-circle of suspects situation and the
alibis do not qualify as an impossibility. Not according to my
definition of what constitutes an impossible alibi, which also
happens to be correct one. Nonetheless, the problem of the alibis is
well handled and perhaps, as a whole, closer to the alibi-crackers of
Christopher
Bush than Freeman Wills Crofts. I can easily imagine Ludovic
Travers and Superintendent Wharton marching into Melchester Close to
go to work on the parade of clues and alibis ( The Case of the
Cathedral Close ?). Gilbert
reportedly complain in later years that Close Quarters ended
up being somewhat cluttered and wonder if he meant the last quarter
of the story, which became a bit messy towards the end. It felt like
the clear, straightforward narrivate went a little wobbly all of the
sudden. A hidden crossword puzzle is discovered with an entire
chapter dedicated to solving it. A late and tragic second murder
throws the solution Hazlerigg had pieced together out of the window
and had to resort to some scheming plotting to trap
the murderer, but how much of that slightly wobbly ending can be
blamed on a then inexperienced author or what can be blamed on later
alterations. For example, the murderer turning out to have been too
clever by half, who " started to elaborate on two or three of the
points, " which is an admittance more in line with the post-war
period than the 1937. Just like the murderer refusing to obey the
rules of fiction and politely coming clean, before committing
suicide. Either
way, Close Quarters is a promising and prodigious first stab
at the detective story from an author who would go on to deliver on
this promising debut with novels like the all-time classic WWII
mystery, Death in Captivity . Particularly recommended to fans
of Christopher Bush, Freeman Wills Crofts and Rupert
Penny .
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