Close Quarters
Close Quarters is the first novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. Published in England by Hodder & Stoughton in 1947, it did not appear in the United States until 1963. By then Gilbert's reputation had been firmly established and his regular American publisher for many years had been Harper & Row. Close Quarters, however, was published by Walker and Company, a less prestigious house. The novel's form is that of the Golden Age mystery novels that had been popularized during the 1930s by writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Michael Innes. It also introduces Inspector Hazlerigg, a character who will go on to appear in a number of Gilbert's earliest works. The events take place not long after World War II in the normally quiet cathedral town of Welchester, more particularly in the "close" of the 500-year old cathedral itself.