THE MAN WHO HATED BANKS

Readers familiar with Gilbert's matchless spy stories (Game Without Rules, 1967, etc.) will be especially grateful to have these 18 previously uncollected stories from 1948 through 1979. The short-shorts (featuring either Chief Inspector Hazlerigg or the solicitor Bohun) are notable for the ingenuity and variety of their riddles (how could a wanted man disappear from a deserted street? which of three men gave the fellow train-traveler in their compartment a fatal heart attack, and how?); the mid-length stories, especially a cycle of three linked tales featuring brutish, fallen Chief Inspector Mercer, are striking examples of Gilbert's wit and compression; and the title story, which sets Inspector Patrick Petrella against a man who robs banks to work off a grudge, is flavorsome and eventful enough to serve a less polished professional for a full-length novel. Pure pleasure—and a particular treat for readers who've been following Gilbert for any substantial fraction of the last 50 years.