Michael Gilbert

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  • Bibliography:
    60 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    January 1947
  • Latest Book:
    August 2023
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Full Series List in Order

Inspector Hazelrigg

1 - Close Quarters (1947)
2 - He Didn't Mind Danger (1948)
3 - The Doors Open (1949)
4 - Smallbone Deceased (1950)
5 - Death Has Deep Roots (1951)
6 - Fear to Tread (1953)

Joe Narrabone

1 - Ring of Terror (Jul-1995)
2 - Into Battle (Feb-1997)

Patrick Petrella

1 - Blood and Judgement (1959)
2 - Amateur in Violence (1973)
3 - Petrella at Q (1977)
4 - The Young Petrella (Aug-1988)
5 - Roller-Coaster (1993)

Book List in Order: 60 titles

  • Close Quarters

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 1

    It has been more than a year since Cannon Whyte fell 103 feet from the cathedral gallery, yet unease still casts a shadow over the peaceful lives of the Close’s inhabitants. In an apparently separate incident, head verger Appledown is being persecu...

  • He Didn't Mind Danger

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 2

  • The Doors Open

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 3

    One night on a commuter train, Paddy Yeatman-Carter sees a man attempting suicide. Intervening, he prevents the man from going through with it. However, the very next day the same man is found dead, and Paddy believes the circumstances to be extremel...

  • Smallbone Deceased

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 4

    A tale of lethal events at a legal firm by a writer acclaimed as “perhaps the best living master of the classic English murder mystery” (The New Yorker).One of the Crime Writers’ Association’s Top 100 Crime Novels of All TimeOne of the Myster...

  • Death Has Deep Roots

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 5

    Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of MurderAn eager London crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, hotel worker, ex-French Resistance fighter, and the only logical suspect for the murder of her supposed lover, Major Eric Thoseby. ...

  • Fear to Tread

    • / Law Enforcement
    • Buy Buy
    Inspector Hazelrigg - 6

    The story of how Mr. Weatherall, the headmaster of a school, but otherwise an ordinary man, was introduced to a huge nationwide black market operation. It seems that anything goes so as to ensure profits and the continuance of the fraud in what amoun...

  • Blood and Judgement

    Patrick Petrella - 1

    When the wife of a recently escaped prisoner is found murdered and partially buried near a reservoir, Patrick Petrella, a Metropolitan Police Inspector, is called in. Suspicion falls on the escaped convict, but what could have been his motive? Petrel...

  • Amateur in Violence

    Patrick Petrella - 2

  • Petrella at Q

    Patrick Petrella - 3

    Promoted to Detective Inspector, Patrick Petrella now finds himself in a London borough close to the Thames. In these short stories he has to deal with arson, blackmail, fraud, forgery and murder. The Thames is a focus for some of the stories, as it ...



  • The Killing of Katie Steelstock

    Written as a police procedural in the best traditions of the ‘Golden Age’ writers. Certainly one of Michael Gilberts finest in this particular sphere. A TV actress is murdered and it would seem that the alleged perpetrator has been framed. As the...

  • The Body of a Girl

    Detective Chief Inspector Mercer is called to the scene when a skeleton of a girl is found on Westlaugh Island in the upper reaches of the River Thames. What appears to be a straightforward and routine investigation, however, leads to unexpected even...

  • Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens

    More short stories about the deceptively harmless but sometimes lethal pair of agents, Calder and Behrens, who are also met in ‘Game Without Rules’. Calder lives in Kent with a golden deerhound named Rasselas, whilst Behrens lives with his aunt a...

  • The End-Game

    The London Regional Crime Squad, is trying to nail a financial empire involved with organised crime and drug smuggling. David Morgan goes undercover and is hired by a travel company to act as a tour guide around Europe, but is in fact being used as a...

  • Office Party

  • The Black Seraphim

    James Scotland, a young pathologist, decides on a quiet holiday in Melchester, but amid the cathedral town's quiet medieval atmosphere, he finds a hornet's nest of church politics, town and country rivalries, and murder. He is called upon to investig...

  • The Long Journey Home

    Believed dead in a charter plane crash, John Gabriel Benedict, a Londoner from New Zealand, is actually footloose and carefree in southern Italy until he is forced to match wits with the Mafia, the Union Corse in France, and a London-based conglomera...

  • The Family Tomb

  • Flash Point

    Will Dylan is an electoral favourite " intelligent, sharp and good-looking, he is the government’s new golden boy. Jonas Killey is a small-time lawyer " determined, uncompromising and obsessed, he is hounding Dylan in the hope of bringing him i...

  • Trouble

    Explosives, destined for a terrorist bombing campaign, are being smuggled into the UK via the Channel coast. One plot is foiled but the security services suspect another. A seemingly unconnected problem occurs when there are race riots in London. How...



  • The Empty House

    Dr. Alexander Wolfe, a top genetic scientist " a key figure in British Biological Warfare Research- seemingly plunges over a cliff in his car. His body is never recovered and it emerges his life was recently insured for a considerable sum. Accordin...

  • Overdrive

  • Game Without Rules

    Mr. Calder lived with a golden deerhound named Rasselas in a cottage in Kent. Mr. Behrens lives with his aunt and keeps bees. No one would in the least suspect that the pair are in fact agents for the British Joint Services Standing Committee and the...

  • The Young Petrella

    Patrick Petrella - 4

    Patrick Petrella is considered something of a curiosity by his fellow police officers. He is the son of a Spanish policeman and an English school mistress. He speaks four languages and is as good at picking fine wines as he is locks. The short storie...

  • After the Fine Weather

    When Laura Hart travels to Austria to visit her brother, vice-consul of Lienz in the Tyrol, she briefly meets an American who warns her of the mounting political tension. Neo-Nazis are stirring trouble in the province, and xenophobia is rife between ...

  • Be Shot for Sixpence

    A gripping spy thriller with a deserved reputation. Philip sees an announcement in 'The Times' from an old school friend who has instructed the newspaper to publish only if they don’t hear from him. This sets a trail running through Europe, with mu...

  • The Country-House Burglar

    Liz Artside has reached that comfortable age where the company of old friends, such as the General and Bob Cleeve, and a cup of good coffee, plus directing the local choir, are all she wants. A series of spectacular robberies is disturbing the neighb...

  • The Danger Within

  • The 92nd Tiger

    Hugo Greest is the tiger. He now has a TV adventure series in which he has knocked out 91 beautiful girls and 91 villains. The 92nd comes unexpectedly when he is approached by the Foreign Office. It seems that His Highness Sheik bin Rashid bin Abdull...

  • The Night of the Twelfth

    Two children have been murdered. When a third is discovered " the tortured body of ten-year-old Ted Lister " the Home Counties police are compelled to escalate their search for the killer, and Operation Huntsman is intensified. Meanwhile, a new m...



  • Paint Gold and Blood

    A young man stumbles across a conspiracy to steal an early Italian triptych in France, little realising that years later it may hold the key to his future wellbeing. Meanwhile, he deals with a matter of embezzlement of church funds not to mention the...

  • Anything for a Quiet Life: And Other Mysteries

    Jonas Pickett, lawyer and commissioner of oaths is nearing retirement, but still has lots of energy. However, he leaves the pressure of a London practice behind to set up a new modest office in a quiet seaside resort. He soon finds that he is overw...

  • The Crack in the Teacup

    Barhaven is on the south coast within commuting distance from London. It is, however, a fairly sleepy place and it seems incredulous that it could be the kind of town where the local councillors could manage to line their own pockets. However, there ...

  • The Queen Against Karl Mullen

    Karl Mullen is a brutal South African secret policeman who is in Great Britain to seek the extradition of a black activist. His very presence in the country is a political embarrassment to the government. Then, there is an accusation of shoplifting a...

  • Sky High

    Tim appears to have had an exciting war, but is fairly secretive about what he had been up to. He lives in a sleepy village with his mother Liz, who is concerned about him not least because he is equally unforthcoming about the job he has in London. ...

  • Roller-Coaster

    Patrick Petrella - 5

    Patrick Petrella has been promoted, but is now installed behind a desk, dealing with a mountain of paperwork on diverse subjects ranging from police race relations to allegations of brutality, press harassment and bribery of officers. He is, however,...

  • Judith

    in Mysterious Pleasures

    'Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool. A clever fool -- perhaps -- but a fool just the same' RAYMOND CHANDLER Ever since its creation in 1953, the Crime Writers' Association has celebrated and champione...

  • Ring of Terror

    Joe Narrabone - 1

    The infamous Siege of Sydney Street forms the author’s background to this gripping novel. Luke Pagan, a young ambitious and Russian-speaking police officer is co-opted by the security services to observe Russian revolutionaries who are wanted by th...

  • Into Battle

    Joe Narrabone - 2

    Luke Pagan is stationed in Portsmouth to keep an eye on Zeppelin flights. He discovers a British Naval officer doing exactly the same. Seemingly, there is a German spy ring operating with a view to directing the Zeppelins so they can keep an eye on t...

  • The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries

    Hazlerigg, Bohun, Mercer and Petrella all feature in turn in this collection of eighteen short stories, which was first published to commemorate fifty years of Michael Gilbert’s published writing. All of the familiar Gilbert themes are present to g...



  • The Ninety-Second Tiger

    The 92nd episode about the Tiger would be ve ry different. Asked by a Middle East potentate to advise on military matters, Hugo Greest flew east and found himself ca ught up in a blood-thinning serial that could only end in de ath for some people. '...

  • Over and Out

    The slaughter of World War I in the trenches continues unabated. Luke Pagan finds himself in the Intelligence Corps, investigating an illegal organisation controlled by a Belgian, which is encouraging British soldiers to desert and move across to the...

  • Mathematics of Murder

  • The Curious Conspiracy and Other Crimes

    A MASTER STORYTELLER

    To recognize the year of Michael Gilbert's ninetieth birthday, Crippen & Landru is proud to publish this new collection of stories. The Curious Conspiracy and Other Crimes gathers together twenty previously uncollected stories...

  • The Dust and the Heat

    Oliver Nugent is a young Armoured Corps officer in the year 1945. Taking on a near derelict pharmaceutical firm, he determines to rebuild it and make it a success. He encounters some ruthless opposition, and counteracts with some fairly unscrupulous ...

  • The Etruscan Net

    Robert Broke runs a small gallery on the Via de Benci and is an authority on Etruscan terracotta. A man who keeps himself to himself, he is the last person to become mixed up in anything risky. But when two men arrive in Florence, Broke’s world tur...

  • The Murder of Diana Devon and Other Stories

    "The Murder of Diana Devon and Other Stories" contains the eleven remaining, previously uncollected stories by Michael Gilbert, dating between 1956 and 1991. It also includes two radio plays and a poem. In addition, this collection includes two hithe...

  • Fifty-Nine Days

    Joseph Taylor feels as though he needs to escape from his life. He is heartbroken over his failing relationships, distraught over his current complacency, and overly disillusioned with his life's direction. In an effort to leave his problems behind, ...

  • Death in Captivity

    Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, this classic crime novel, featuring the challenges of World War II, was written in the golden age of detective fiction."Any boo...

  • Stay of Execution

    Michael Gilbert was never afraid in his stories to attack unnecessary and pettifogging bureaucracy, not to cover up the seedier side of the law, or fail to show that justice does not always prevail. Nonetheless, this was always done with his hallmark...



  • They Never Looked Inside

    This novel followed ‘Close Quarters’ and once again features Inspector Hazlerigg. It is a gangster suspense thriller about the post-war black market. There is robbery, murder, and smuggling in a volume that contains all of the ingredients of a f...

  • Adieu

    “It began as a struggle. All great love affairs do.” So begins James London’s retelling of the romance that cost him his sanity. James’s narrative starts when he spies Joey Silverton in a dingy campus bar. The attraction is immediate. James i...

  • Modern Happiness

    Ashley, Kiley, and Turner are all in love with the same man -- Aram. Ashley is twenty-eight and engaged to be married, but she finds herself unable to fully recover from her breakup with Aram. He still contacts her and proclaims his love for her, des...

  • Perfected Sinfulness

    Sometimes small towns harbor the most sinister secrets. A chance meeting at a café reunites Franki with her old high school classmate, Eli, who has returned to their hometown. Franki is urged by her friend, Ryah, to overcome her bashfulness and purs...

  • The Search for the Town's Mayor

    Lucy is Franklin's youngest detective and like all good detectives she is always ready for any big mystery to come her way. Including the town's missing mayor. Whereas some towns people say he just packed up and left others speak of only his ghost bu...

  • Lucy Goes to the Beach

    Lucy Goes to the Beachby Michael GilbertLucy’s back again. Solving another big mystery, but this time in the white, sandy beaches of the mighty Atlantic Ocean. After forming a friendship with the lifeguard, Lucy soon realizes her new friend has bee...

  • The Day of the Ness

    Ten-year-old Hal responds to a frantic S.O.S. from a group of friendly but timid space aliens held captive inside a mountain by the evil Ness. Hal, with the help of his cat Susie and the little Think-Think, the Stalker, and other small aliens, comes ...

  • Franklin's Youngest Detective and The Search for the Town's Mayor

    Lucy is Franklin's youngest detective and like all good detectives she is always ready for any big mystery to come her way. Including the town's missing mayor. Whereas some towns people say he just packed up and left others speak of only his ghost ...

  • The Final Throw

    Morrissey, head of London's Regional Crime Squad, is trying to bring down a financial empire involved with organised crime and drug smuggling. He enlists the help of a Welshman and his pretty ex-girlfriend to aid him in the 'Snakes and Ladders' opera...

  • Man Out of Time

    Man Out of Time is a fantasy novel wherein a group of people unexpectedly find themselves in the 28th century. They embark on a journey to return to their own time and encounter many obstacles and challenges. Along the way, they uncover ugly truths a...

  • The Man Who Could Not Sleep and Other Mysteries

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Michael Gilbert has published 60 books.

Michael Gilbert does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Man Out of Time, was published in August 2023.

The first book by Michael Gilbert, Close Quarters, was published in January 1947.

Yes. Michael Gilbert has 3 series.
Author Series
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