The Empty House by Michael Gilbert

This novel (no short stories here) was published in 1978 and is the classic "regular guy who just wants to go about his business but gets swept up into government agents manipulating Israeli and Palestinian spies who kill each other at night in tiny English seaside town" stories. One book cover review compares it to The 39 Steps--that seems about right.

Our hero is Peter Manciple who is relatively young (late 20s?) and works for a very large (therefore cautious) insurance company.  One of their clients, a Dr. Wolfe, is a researcher who works for the military (they offered him what he couldn't refuse: an unlimited budget and access to whatever lab equipment he wanted--the only problem was that they view him and all his discoveries as theirs to use for their own purposes) just died in a most astonishing way: he drove his car along a cliff edge (off the main road, on a camp trail) and then drove straight into a guard rail and down onto the rocks below.  Well, that's strange enough since the day was sunny and the weather fine. Was he drunk? Did he lose consciousness?  We'll never know because the car and everything in it was sucked down into cracks and caves underneath the water's churning surface. Was he even in the car?  Yes, several people who knew him saw him drive past--indeed, he timed his drive perfectly to coincide with a time that had the most people walking around an otherwise desolated area so they could verify that it was him driving the car.  So was it suicide? But he was so happy and outgoing! He just wasn't the type. Hmmm.

In comes the insurance matter: Just a few months ago, Wolfe took out a very large life insurance policy that has a payout of £100,000 (remember, this is in 1978) to go to his sister (his only living relative) if he died by drowning in a sea. Well, that was prescient of him...In fact, it's just so damned strange that the insurance company won't pay out until they send the guy in the office that no one really gets along with (they don't say it, but it's clear to me that he's aspie--he has photographic memory and is a perfectionist to the point that even insurance adjusters get annoyed), Peter Manciple. Of course, Peter has his own ghosts to deal with: his father died under very suspicious circumstances (the official report says "took his own life") but his mother (who is convinced that "they are out there, always watching") thinks he was killed because he was part of the French Resistance. Peter's older brother couldn't take the family drama and fled to Australia and their only contact with him is a card at Christmas.

So, Peter's attitude is "Life is short and death is coming for you so you might as well make both as quick and painless as possible." You can see why his boss tells him to "take as long as he needs" to find out whether or not Dr. Wolfe is really dead and, if so, really died by drowning. So off Peter heads to a sleepy seaside village just as school exams are wrapping up (Blundell's School in Tiverton plays a key role in this novel) and hotels are waking up, getting ready for summer tourists who are set to arrive in two weeks.  

And immediately, things get weird: he keeps seeing the same two guys wherever he goes (train station, car rental office, gas station, outside his hotel).  Afraid of sounding as crazy as his mother, he unwisely ignores all his instincts that tell him something is terribly wrong.  He then heads out to the site of the broken guardrail and concludes that, if Wolfe is in his car, his body is NOT going to be recovered by anyone for an autopsy. Suddenly up pops a Colonel from a nearby military base which is overseeing an "archeological dig"--some excuse about them needing to find all the precious pottery shards before soldiers start practicing with mortar bombs--all run by young Palestinian men who have aglicised names on their name tags ("Stephen" and "Rupert", to give two). Then out of nowhere appear two "Irish" people, a "brother" and "sister", who claim they are trying to trace their roots by finding all the sites mentioned by Blackmore in Lorna Doone.  Indeed, they talk so obsessively about Lorna Doone that their repeated invitations to Peter to join them to look for yet another tributary that feeds the rivers in Doone Valley are always politely but firmly turned down, ensuring that the "siblings" are able to explore the surrounding areas completely unobserved. (Note to self: When you want to poke about and spy on people, talk obsessively about something really boring so anyone who would otherwise get suspicious runs away from you the second they see you.)

Well, one thing leads to another and Peter finds a dead body, then a guy dies in Peter's arms, and then a third guy explodes seconds after Peter wishes him well. It's starting to look like Peter is not the "insurance agent" he claims he is.  Then the hills are crawling with Israeli and Palistinian solders (wait--so that isn't an archeological site?) and the bodies really start piling up. I'll leave it at that so I don't give the mystery away.

Over all, this is a good novel: the writing, as usual, is excellent and there is well placed humor to ease some of the tension.  But the fact is, the issues raised in this story are super depressing--and current events in Palestine don't make them less depressing.