Smallbone Deceased

Smallbone Deceased

Cover of Harper & Row first edition
Author Michael Gilbert
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Crime
Published 1950 (Hodder and Stoughton, U.K.)
1950 (Harper & Row, U.S.)
Media type Print
Pages 253 (1st edition)
ISBN 978-0-340-32037-2

Smallbone Deceased is a British crime novel by Michael Gilbert, first published in 1950 by Hodder and Stoughton (U.K) and Harper & Row (U.S.). Inspired by Gilbert's career as a solicitor, the novel is set in a London solicitor's office.

The book was ranked 64th in the The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, published in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association.[1] Five years later, it was ranked 80th in the The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time, published by the Mystery Writers of America.[2]

Reception and/or Appraisal

Margery H. Oates at the New York Times called it "a first-rate job" upon its publication:

When an anonymous corpse is found in a office strong box, when a trustee disappears and a young partner becomes erratic, the... atmosphere becomes tense... The author is a lawyer who looks at the law and the people in it with equal parts of mirth and wisdom. [3]

A much later appraisal comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime:

Two splendid murders on the premise of a London solicitor. The motives ae good, and one must call excellent the detection by Inspector Hazlerigg and an amateur assistant, who enjoys parainsomnia. As a bonus we are given a method of mortgaging property already fully mortgaged, and a pleasant bit of fooling about the Ascheim-Zondek test and its antecedents. All in all, Gilbert's masterwork.[4]

The Guardian's obituary of Gilbert by H. R. F. Keating described the novel as:

a classic of the genre...rich with everyday details of a law practice, both good and naughty, dancing too with pawky humour; at the same time it sets a puzzle to please the most exigent of readers.[5]

The Telegraph's obituary of Gilbert also praised it as "one of his finest novels".[6]

References

  1. Moody, Susan, ed. (1990). The Hatchard's Crime Companion: 100 top Crime novels. London: Hatchard. ISBN 978-0-904-03002-0. OCLC 60057335.
  2. Penzler, Otto. Friedman, Mickey, ed. The Crown crime companion: the top 100 mystery novels of all time. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-517-88115-6. OCLC 31605503.
  3. Criminals at Large: Office Intrigue, "The New York Times", 5 November 1950 at
  4. Jacques Barzun & Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime, Harper & Row, New York, "Second Impression Corrected", 1973, page 209
  5. Keating, HRF (10 February 2006). "Obituary: Michael Gilbert". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  6. "Michael Gilbert". The Daily Telegraph. 10 February 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2016.


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