Patrick Petrella, the son of an English woman and a Spanish police officer, speaks four languages and can pick locaks as easily as he picks wines. The short stories contained in this volume follow his career as a constable, dealing with burglars, delinquents of various shapes and sizes, bent lawyers, gangs, drugs trafficking and murder. They are classic police procedural stories and show Michael Gilbert at his best with an eye for detail, wit and humour, and above all suspense right up to the end of each episode in Petrella’s varied life. The stroies were originally published in "Edgar Wallace Mystery" in August 1966; the remainder in "Argosy" between November 1956 and August 1958. I loved the stories, and tried to read only one each night to make them last. I have bought all the Michael Gilbert books I can find (usually on abebooks) and only read one that was a bit of a bore. Not bad, so many books later, some from libraries, some purchased. He is one of my favorites, no question.

Very good, SEL ( )