A review by singlecrow
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert

5.0

Very witty, very clever, thoroughly enjoyable. The notable firm of solicitors, Horniman, Birley and Crane, have just found a dead man in one of their deed boxes. This is a firm that already had a significant cast of eccentrics, a singing sergeant, a parasomniac statistician, the Horniman patented filing system and a cat called Chancery, so the addition of the murder is only a little perturbing. Inspector Hazlerigg, for all he's allegedly Gilbert's recurring detective, is merely one voice in a chorus. I am a little biased in that i spent some time in practice in a firm very like Horniman's - that was in 2011; I'm pleased to learn that that sort of firm hasn't changed a whit in more than sixty years - but honestly, I really liked this.