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Inspector Hazlerigg #2
He Didn't Mind Danger
This novel followed Close Quarters, and once again features Inspector Hazlerigg. It is a gangster suspense thriller about the postwar black market. There is robbery, murder, and smuggling in a volume that contains all of the ingredients of a first-class tale, with Gilbert’s particular trademarks of dry humor and wit, and an obvious knowledge of the subject written about with fascinating and revealing detail and description.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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107 people want to read
About the author
Michael Gilbert
133 books92 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Born in Lincolnshire in 1912, Michael Francis Gilbert was educated in Sussex before entering the University of London where he gained an LLB with honours in 1937. Gilbert was a founding member of the British Crime Writers Association, and in 1988 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America - an achievement many thought long overdue. He won the Life Achievement Anthony Award at the 1990 Boucheron in London, and in 1980 he was knighted as a Commander in the Order of the British Empire. Gilbert made his debut in 1947 with Close Quarters, and since then has become recognized as one of our most versatile British mystery writers.
He was the father of Harriett Gilbert.
Born in Lincolnshire in 1912, Michael Francis Gilbert was educated in Sussex before entering the University of London where he gained an LLB with honours in 1937. Gilbert was a founding member of the British Crime Writers Association, and in 1988 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America - an achievement many thought long overdue. He won the Life Achievement Anthony Award at the 1990 Boucheron in London, and in 1980 he was knighted as a Commander in the Order of the British Empire. Gilbert made his debut in 1947 with Close Quarters, and since then has become recognized as one of our most versatile British mystery writers.
He was the father of Harriett Gilbert.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 16, 2021
This is my last Michael Gilbert novel. I have read all the others a number of years ago, but this one proved elusive as either an inter library loan or used book. I had to wait for the ebook. This is the type of procedural that Gilbert devised with great detail. The book's post war London is authentic--largely because the war was still fresh in the mind of the author. Smuggling on a large organized scale is the focus. A fine time.
October 6, 2020
Hazlerigg has a more active role in this book than in some of the others I have read, and that was one of the pleasures of the story. Whatever else happens, he is a stable center. Smuggling and gangs are not my favorite plot devices, but Gilbert is such a wonderful writer, I put my preferences aside in deference to his meticulous plotting and characterizations. I am never disappointed.
June 27, 2024
Another terrific book by Gilbert, that would have been 5 stars for sure if only it had been a classic mystery (suspects, rooms, clues) instead of a suspense/thriller about a great big conspiracy (I hate those on principle) which I'll never enjoy as much, it's not possible. But compared to how Agatha Christie, a somewhat more famous author, handles her suspense thrillers, this is a masterpiece.
And he's so funny (without the book's being a 'comic' mystery, he's just a witty author and can't help himself sometimes, which I love). In chapter 2 we have this:
Further along the bar he observed two girls who appeared to be taking a great deal of time over their first drinks, and he entertained the unworthy suspiciion that they were waiting for a good Samaritan to come and stand them the next one ... (Actually they were school teachers from Saffron Walden engaged in seeing the night life of London. The blonde one taught Geography and the brunette took Physical Training. They drank their pink gins slowly because they disliked the taste of them. They will not appear again in this story).
I love that. And then, further down the same page, after complaining about his sister:
It was unreasonable to be angry with anyone for being themselves and not someone else altogether. She had many excellent qualities ... and by her own unaided efforts saved two and a half tons of waste paper. There must be many worse people in London. Indeed, at that moment, two of them came in.
Just a delight. Funny without being stupid, whimsical, cutesie, or annoying, which is hard to pull off. He reminds me a bit of the brillian Joe Keenan (head writer on TV's Frasier, and author of novels such as Blue Heaven.
But it isn't a comic novel, it's just a clever one. But again, I want to emphasize, it's not a mystery in the usual sense. You can't figure out whodunnit ... it's more of a who-is-the-brains-being-the-operation and it's not really someone we know when we find out, alongside a how-can-we-escape-this-situation, as is often the case in thrillers. So a very, very good thriller, but I prefer him in clues-and-suspects mode.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
And he's so funny (without the book's being a 'comic' mystery, he's just a witty author and can't help himself sometimes, which I love). In chapter 2 we have this:
Further along the bar he observed two girls who appeared to be taking a great deal of time over their first drinks, and he entertained the unworthy suspiciion that they were waiting for a good Samaritan to come and stand them the next one ... (Actually they were school teachers from Saffron Walden engaged in seeing the night life of London. The blonde one taught Geography and the brunette took Physical Training. They drank their pink gins slowly because they disliked the taste of them. They will not appear again in this story).
I love that. And then, further down the same page, after complaining about his sister:
It was unreasonable to be angry with anyone for being themselves and not someone else altogether. She had many excellent qualities ... and by her own unaided efforts saved two and a half tons of waste paper. There must be many worse people in London. Indeed, at that moment, two of them came in.
Just a delight. Funny without being stupid, whimsical, cutesie, or annoying, which is hard to pull off. He reminds me a bit of the brillian Joe Keenan (head writer on TV's Frasier, and author of novels such as Blue Heaven.
But it isn't a comic novel, it's just a clever one. But again, I want to emphasize, it's not a mystery in the usual sense. You can't figure out whodunnit ... it's more of a who-is-the-brains-being-the-operation and it's not really someone we know when we find out, alongside a how-can-we-escape-this-situation, as is often the case in thrillers. So a very, very good thriller, but I prefer him in clues-and-suspects mode.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
August 29, 2019
What an adventure! Hazelrigg & Major McCann were amazing in catching the bad guys!
March 22, 2023
Liking books by this author now that I've discovered him.
September 6, 2024
That was fun. Nicely paced. I'll have to try anothere of his sometime.
April 9, 2025
Believable characters, interesting plot. Supposed to be a thriller--but in a subdued, post-WW2, kinder, gentler manner. The world has gotten far nastier and more violent in the 2000s.
March 10, 2011
An Inspector Hazelrigg book that also features Major McCann. Robbery, Assault, MURDER, Smuggling! Story told masterfully by Michael Gilbert. Like the book Smallbone Deceased. The book contains the crime solved by various groups working together. The police, an individual, and a community of people doing what is right. This man cannot write a bad book!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews