I recently tweeted a photo of my British library Crime Classics collection, most of which I haven’t read, and asked the good people of Twitter which I should read next.
As I should have perhaps anticipated, I got many, many suggestions – practically as many as there are books there. But I went away and explored a few of the options, and chose Death in Captivity (1952) by Michael Gilbert, which I think I got as a review copy. I was intrigued by it’s WW2 setting and the ‘locked room mystery’ element to it.
The novel is set in a POW camp in Italy towards the end of the war – the soldiers have heard rumours that the end of the war might be coming, but nothing concrete. But they do know that a retreating German army might have no compunction in a few last-minute killings of British soldiers in an interment camp. Now is the time to make good their escape – and they have been busy tunnelling away from the various huts they’re living in.
I’ll be honest – the characters more or less blended into factions for me, in this one. I was too caught up with the setting and the mystery (to which I’ll come in a moment) – so this review is going to be lamentably short on characters’ names and personalities. I was also feeling pretty anxious when I read it, so was speeding through for the plot. But Gilbert definitely makes us feel like we’re in the middle of this camp – with all the humour, rivalries, fear, and ambition that are the everyday norms of the extraordinary situation in which these man have found themselves.
While there are a few tunnels, most are really only decoys for the main tunnel. But one morning, the soldiers find that there is a dead body in it, under a pile of rubble. It brings about a long list of questions: murder or accident? How did he get in? Do the Italian guards know about the tunnel – and how can they begin to investigate his death without exposing their chance of escape?
Like so many detective novels, the denouement doesn’t live up to the prowess of Agatha Christie. If, like me, you started with her, every subsequent detective novelist will disappoint with their plots – I’ve yet to find any exceptions. And, no, the denouement here is not particularly satisfactory – but what was brilliant was the way in which Gilbert brought that world to life. For the vividness there, and sections of real tension, I’d very readily recommend Death in Captivity.