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The Danger Within

Page history last edited by Jon 12 years, 5 months ago

Gilbert, Michael - The Danger Within (1952) aka Death in Captivity

 

Death in Captivity, set in a POW camp in Italy, is based on real experience, as the author had, in fact, been a prisoner of war. This book is good but by no means outstanding. The cast is inevitably much larger than that in Smallbone Deceased and the setting does not lend itself easily to the witty style of the other book. Unfortunately, the characters didn't come truly alive (for me, at least) and towards the end it switches from whodunit to escape story, OK in itself, but all I wanted was the solution to the murder mystery which, when finally revealed was, I thought, just a leetle bit disappointing.

 

Alan P.


 

Rue Morgue Press Trade pb 7/07: ISBN: 978-1601870094

 

In 1952, Michael Gilbert gave the mystery world a locked room murder set in an Italian POW camp during World War II. The Rue Morgue Press re-release gives this crime classic a new audience and reminds all mystery fans why the Brits have a corner on the classic mystery genre.

 

A POW himself, Gilbert’s descriptions of camp life and routines has absolute credibility and his characters run the gamut of the Allied powers, from Gary Cooper look-alike American Air Force colonels to Royal Navy types with bushy red beards. His Axis guards are a mix of brutal fascists and war-weary Italian guards who are willing to sell almost anything for a price.

 

When a suspected German spy is found dead in a collapsed section of escape tunnel, none of the prisoners cry any tears. It is only when the scene is studied more closely that they begin to realize that they have a serious problem on their hands. The alleged informer, a heartily disliked Greek soldier named Cyriakos Coutoules, is found at the end of Camp 127’s longest escape tunnel, mere yards from opening a route to freedom. The tunnel entrance is concealed by a trap door that requires four strong men and pulleys to open. No one was with Coutoules after roll call the night he died and the tunnel crew saw him alive at the time the trap door was closed for the night. If his body is left where it was found, the guards will discover his absence at the next roll call, destroy the tunnel and set back escape efforts by months.

 

The escape committee decides to move the body to another tunnel, which has been abandoned, report the death to the guards and pretend to know nothing about the circumstances. When the fascists conclude that the death was murder rather than an accident and announce that they will execute the British officer that they believe was the murderer, the leaders of the prisoners decide that the truth has to be discovered, fast.

 

Enter Captain Henry “Cuckoo” Goyles, a former headmaster, master tunneller and amateur detective. Using all of the classic methodology perfected by Agatha Christie for Poirot and Miss Marple, Goyles begins asking questions, watching for reactions, and analyzing everything, pushed by the deadline of the upcoming firing squad.

 

A lively period piece with enough plot twists to keep even the most jaded reader guessing, The Danger Within’s re-release will establish Michael Gilbert, a MWA Grandmaster, CWA Diamond Dagger winner and Bouchercon lifetime achievement honoree, as a must-read treasure for a new generation of fans. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 

W. J. H. Reed from I Love a Mystery.


I have a very old edition with the DIC title but had never gone around to reading it. I recently received the fine Rue Morgue edition TEW and read it. I found it stunning, surely one of the very best by this author. The setting is a World War II Italian POW camp, in mid 1943 as the Mussolini regime is about to collapse. A Greek POW, suspected of being a spy, is found murdered in a secret escape tunnel. Who did it, how, and why are surprisingly well done in spite of what appear to be difficulties because of the setting, and the books succeeds both as a POW escape thriller and a classical who-done-it, with clueing, red-herrings, misleading, and surprise dénouements done by a master storyteller – about which more later. How could I have missed reading this before?

 

Enrique F. Bird

 

See also: http://onlydetect.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/michael-gilbert-the-danger-within-1952/

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