Now THIS is what I'm talking about: no spooky murderous rooms, just basic police procedural. This was published in 1951 and it is thoroughly modern murder mystery. (And by that I mean what I consider a modern murder mystery according to my own, private standards that I am not going to share with anyone.) The main character is Patrick Petrella. He's a detective sergeant in London's Metropolitan Police. He's the first character Gilbert has presented that is firmly on the police side of matters, not the legal/court side. I think Gilbert must have enjoyed that, as the lawyers and judges he presents are utterly foreign to Petrella--requiring SO MUCH evidence before they'll accept a claim as true or an object (say a gun) as what is is purported to be. Yes, that really is the way lawyers think--almost as demanding as philosophers are. Police, it seems, are happy to rely on gaping inferences--suspicious glances, unusual coincidences, gaps in employement history--to support their conclusions. Yet, despite being a "cop", Petrella is likable. What saves him, perhaps, is that he's a bit of a police outsider and disobeys his supervisors. But he does get pissed off when people express to him how much they hate cops--so that part is completly believable.
The story begins with a bunch of young kids (9-12, say) finding a dead body under some leaves and branches, under overgrown bushes, at a river reservoir sort of area. I'm not clear on what this place is: it's right in the middle of London and is not a nature reserve, but is totally undeveloped, nobody does anything there (except murder people and find murdered people), and it is the source of drinking water....Too outside my realm of experience to make sense to me, I'm afraid. Regardless, there's the body and it needs attending to. Pretty quickly it's obvious that she was murdered and this was a very slap-dash attempt to hide the body--almost as if the murderer wanted the body to be found...Hmm. Then the city council guys that work there realize that one of their own, a guy names Ricketts, isn't at work as he should be--and he isn't in the little on-site cabin he gets to live in as part of his job. In seems he's cleared off--pretty much exactly the same moment this woman was killed. Well, that's weird. Did he see too much and was killed too or is this just one of those really weird coincidences? But cops don't believe in "coincidences"...
Then it turns out that the woman was the wife of a mobster who escaped during a prisoner transport THE NIGHT BEFORE SHE WAS SHOT!!! Ok, so did the guy escape, meet up with her, shoot her (why?) and then, seeing Ricketts poking around, shoot him, too? Then why is HER body under a bush for anyone nosy kid to find but Ricketts' corpse has disappeared into thin air? Wait, there's more! It turns out that she was 3 months pregnant at the time she was murdered--and her husband had been in prison for almost a year before he escaped! Is that why he killed her?
Wait there is more! The cops find the murder weapon on the silty bottom of the reservoir and it has a smeared fingerprint on it--it's an old German military gun that WWI guys collected--not really a mobster weapon at all...Wait there's more! It turns out that Ricketts was a WWI hero and won a medal! But he did he? Because everything we learn about this guy is that he's no hero...Wait! Another corpse is found--this one pulled from the water! Is it Ricketts? Nope--but not for the reason you think...
Ok, we have too many mobsters, ex-soldiers who have records with the military police, mobster molls who are getting ripped off by pawn brokers...lots of murder suspects, lots of bodies, missing military records, missing city council employees, missing girlfriends, missing jewelry from mobster organized robberies and into all this is a plenty of courtroom drama that allows lawyers to criticize bumbling cops and cops (outside the courts, away from judicial ears) to criticize overly fastidious judges and defense lawyers.
An excellent read and wraps up nicely. As ususal for Gilbert, lots of twists and turns and good humor to carry the story along. And extra nice is that this is the first novel to feature Petrella, but Gilbert must have been pleased with his creation as Petrella features in another eight novels and quite a few of the short stories that Gilbert got published in literary magazines.
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