Death Has Deep Roots
Death Has Deep Roots is the fifth novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. It was published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1951 and in the United States by Harper & Brothers in 1952. Noel Anthony Pontarlier Rumbold ("Nap"), a junior solicitor in his father's London firm. Nap had spent four months on dangerous missions with the French maquis in occupied France during the war and is a Lieutenant-Colonel, D.S.O. Also has Inspector Hazlerigg, and other characters from They Never Looked Inside (Major Angus McMann) and The Doors Open (Noel Anthony Pontarlier Rumbold ("Nap"). Nap is the woman's lawyer, and he asks McMann for help. McMann interviews Hazlerigg, who surreptitiously provides him with a name of a person to investigate.
Plot and Title(s)
The war
Margery H. Oates at the New York Times called it "a first-rate job" upon its publication:
When an anonymous corpse is found in a office strong box, when a trustee disappears and a young partner becomes erratic, the... atmosphere becomes tense... The author is a lawyer who looks at the law and the people in it with equal parts of mirth and wisdom. [1]
A much later appraisal comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime:
There have been many mystery tales based upon the activities of the French Resistence; few have been good, and fewer stand up to current rereading. This is one of the very best... Scene of the crime is a small London hotel. Counsel of both sides are excellently portrayed. A gripping tale: one of the author's triumphs.[2]
Style and Contents
The style is, in actuality, a
Credibility
As in many crime or mystery stories,.
Notes
- ↑ Criminals at Large: Office Intrigue, "The New York Times", 5 November 1950 at [1]
- ↑ Jacques Barzun & Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime, Harper & Row, New York, "Second Impression Corrected", 1973, page 209