Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert User Search limit reached - please wait a few minutes and try again. In order to protect Biblio.co.uk from unauthorized automated bot activity and allow our customers continual access to our services, we may limit the number of searches an individual can perform on the site in a given period of time. We try to be as generous as possible, but generally attempt to limit search frequency to that which would represent a typical human's interactions. If you are seeing this message, please wait a couple of minutes and try again. If you think that you've reached this page in error, please let us know at [email protected]. If you are an affiliate, and would like to integrate Biblio search results into your site, please contact [email protected] for information on accessing our inventory APIs. Can you guess which first edition cover the image above comes from? What was Dr. Seuss’s first published book? Take a stab at guessing and be entered to win a $50 Biblio gift certificate! Read the rules here. This website uses cookies. We use cookies to remember your preferences such as preferred shipping country and currency, to save items placed in your shopping cart, to track website visits referred from our advertising partners, and to analyze our website traffic. Privacy Details. The Mystery of Romance?; The Black Seraphim, by Michael Gilbert. New York: Harper & Row. 216 pp. $13.95. A Death at St. Anselm's, by Isabelle Holland. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co. , Inc. 229 pp. $13.95. Romance is popping up everywhere these days, even in murder mystery novels. The romantic possibilities in most murder mysteries are usually repressed in order to keep these novels within the confines of the genre. Romance can get out of hand and could so easily detract from the mystery. And, after all, the main point of a murder mystery novel is the mystery. Two recently published murder mysteries share a background of Anglican church politics. They also emphasize romance and thus run the risk of failing as murder mysteries. ''A Death at St. Anselm's,'' by Isabelle Holland, comes close to failing; ''The Black Seraphim,'' by Michael Gilbert, succeeds spectacularly. The romance in ''The Black Seraphim,'' like every other aspect of this mystery novel , fits neatly into the pattern of the story. The romance in ''A Death at St. Anselm's'' threatens to take over the story and almost turns this mystery into a romantic suspense novel. The plot of ''A Death at St. Anselm's'' is weighted more toward the romantic than the whodunit. When Dick Grism, business manager of St. Anselm's Episcopal Church on New York's Park Avenue and East Sixty-second Street, is murdered, the Rev. Claire Aldington becomes a suspect. She also finds herself revising her previously low opinion of banker Brett Cunningham, St. Anselm's former business manager. Claire and Brett have battled in the past over the allocation of church funds. The murder investigation brings them together, and love blossoms. I was more curious to find out how their relationship would progress than I was to find out the identity and the motive of Dick Grism's murderer. The romance in ''A Death at St. Anselm's stole the show, further weakening this already mediocre mystery novel. At the same time, the romance provided a diversion. In ''The Black Seraphim,'' on the other hand, the romance is one of several elements that combine to make it an excellent mystery novel. ''The Black Seraphim'' has good writing, interesting characters, a suspenseful plot, subtle humor, and a romance that, although secondary to the mystery, serves to complicate the plot and intensify the suspense. When Dr. James Scotland, a young pathologist from London, visits the cathedral town of Melchester, he finds himself embroiled in a complicated town vs. gown conflict that results in the murder of the archdeacon. Archdeacon Pawle wanted to sell some of the cathedral's land to a shady land development company backed by some powerful and dishonest local figures. Opposing the scheme is the dean of the cathedral, Dean Forrest. His daughter, Amanda, and James Scotland fall in love. When James pursues his suspicions about the cause of the archdeacon's death, Amanda and her father become suspects in the murder case, and Amanda severs her relationship with James. Everything gets straightened out in the end, but not before there are several more plot twists. 9780755105281 - The Black Seraphim by Gilbert, Michael. Condition: Acceptable. Heavy wear. Budget item. Pages bent. The Black Seraphim. Gilbert, Michael. Published by House of Stratus, 2011. Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Condition: Good. A+ Customer service! Satisfaction Guaranteed! Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. The Black Seraphim. Gilbert, Michael. Published by House of Stratus, 2011. New - Softcover Condition: New. Condition: New. A+ Customer service! Satisfaction Guaranteed! Book is in NEW condition. The Black Seraphim. Gilbert Michael. Published by House of Stratus, Incorporated, 2011. New - Softcover Condition: New. Condition: New. pp. 236. The Black Seraphim. Michael Gilbert. Published by House of Stratus, Incorporated, 2011. New - Softcover Condition: New. Condition: New. pp. 236. Tell us what you're looking for and once a match is found, we'll inform you by e-mail. Can't remember the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Shop With Us. Sell With Us. About Us. Find Help. Other AbeBooks Companies. Follow AbeBooks. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert. MICHAEL GILBERT – The Black Seraphim. Penguin; US paperback reprint; 1st printing, 1985. Hardcover editions: Hodder & Stoughton (UK), 1983; Harper & Row (US), 1984.; Detective Book Club, n.d. [3-in-1]. Other paperbacks: Hamlyn (UK), 1984; Mysterious Press (US), 1987. Mr. Gilbert was born in 1912, which would have made him 73 when this book was first published, and by no means was he finished as a writer. By my count there have been 14 more novels and collections that came after this one, including the provocatively titled The Mathematics of Murder , a collection of short stories that was published in England in 2000. No US edition seems to have been forthcoming, and [at the time I write this] no copies of any persuasion show up on ABE at all. The series characters in The Mathematics of Murder belong to the London solicitors� firm of Fearne and Bracknell, with several of the stories being previously published in Ellery Queen�s Mystery Magazine , and that is where perhaps they might be most easily tracked down. There are no series characters in The Black Seraphim , to which I will return to in a moment, but over the years several detectives and other starring characters have made their way in and out of Gilbert�s novels and short stories. These include Inspector Patrick Petrella, Inspector (later Superintendent) Hazlerigg, Commander Elfe, solicitor Henry Bohun, Jonas Pickett, the espionage team of Samuel Behrens and Daniel John Calder (Petrella, Pickett and and Elfe also make various crossover appearance in several of their adventures), and Luke Pagan, about whom I know little, but whose cases seem to all have taken place around the time of World War I. Gilbert�s most recent book is a collection of short stories, The Curious Conspiracy and Other Crimes , which was published by Crippen & Landru in 2002. (C&L also did The Man Who Hated Banks And Other Mysteries , which came out in 1997.) The most recent novel that Gilbert has written seems to have been Over and Out (Hale, 1999), a Luke Pagan entry. Going back to the beginning of his career, Gilbert�s first work of crime fiction was Close Quarters (1947), a mystery in which Hazlerigg has the starring role, a work of detective fiction which falls, definitely and definitively, within the so-called �Golden Age� or classical tradition. Which gets us circled back around to The Black Seraphim , which � if you�re still with me — is a “Golden Ager” as well, at least in an modernized sense. The romance that�s involved is a little more amorous than it would have been in 1933, for example, and in a few other ways which involve how the story itself is allowed to develop, which I�ll get back to in a moment. From the beginning, though, while the year this novel takes place is not stated in any specific fashion, it can easily be assumed to be 1983, the year of its publication. Nothing overtly suggests otherwise. But taking place as it does in a small cathedral town, with much of the action behind the walls of the cathedral grounds and in effect isolated within, the book produces the feeling that a massive slidestep back into time has occurred. Save for a few modern conveniences, the year could have as easily been 1933, a mere fifty years before. James Scotland, a young pathologist sent to Melchester for a little R&R (rest and recovery), soon discovers that jealousies and bitter rivalries can exist (nay, thrive!) just as well in a theological college as well as it can in academia, to name another scene of the crime where the stakes are as equally high (or low, depending on your point of view). Town and gown antagonisms are an equally crucial part of the mix. Having not read Gilbert recently, if ever, other than one or two short stories, I was surprised a bit at the elements of rowdy schoolboy humor � I�d have thought it was more in Michael Innes�s field of expertise, if you�d asked me ahead of time � but when the murder occurs, it becomes clear that a serious turn has been taken. And being a book produced later in Gilbert�s career, it is not too surprising that within its pages he turns philosophical, as age and wisdom come upon him, and it is here where I believe the major deviation from the Golden Age comes in. I hope you don�t mind a lengthy sort of quote. This is from page 182, and is a discussion between Scotland and a lady whom he is rapidly becoming fond of. They are discussing how the investigation is proceeding, and Scotland speaks first: �Surely you can�t have forgotten. What you said when we were on that walk. About scientists prying into matters they ought to leave alone and coming up with the wrong answers. They came up with the right answer this time.� This was rash of him. Amanda said, �You�ve got it all wrong, Buster. What I said was that scientists never know when they�ve reached the place where they ought to stop. Well, you�ve reached it now, haven�t you?� �I doubt if there�s much more information to be extracted from those samples.� �Right. So you stop.� �Your father wouldn�t agree with you. He said, ‘When once you have put your hand to the plow, turn not back.’� �Exactly,� said Amanda triumphantly. �But when you�ve reached the end of the last furrow, you�ve got to stop. You don�t want to start plowing up the road.� This is not your usual lovers� tiff, I think you will agree. There are two brief scenes (pages 184 and 191) that puzzlingly do not seem to fit in with any of the explanations that come later, but what at first is the most � let�s say disconcerting � is that the final unraveling takes place totally outside of Scotland�s presence. It�s anti-climactic, one thinks, initially, and then, given some thought, perhaps not. Much is made of Scotland�s age. He�s but 24, and he�s young enough to recover from the blows of fate that his stand (see above) has dealt him. In what may be a final twist, not in terms of solving the case, but rather in terms of who �- it is another man, not Scotland but one much older, who, in the final few pages, looks back, and who decides on his own that justice has been done, and on its own merits. It took me a while, but I finally came around. This is a fine piece of work. PostScript: The title is taken from a line in a poem by the French poet Alfred de Musset, concerning the concept of a blessed wound, from which at length Scotland will recover: � une sainte blessure; que les noirs s�raphins t�ont faite au fond de coeur .� UPDATE [07-14-07] Michael Gilbert died in 2006, nearly two years after this review was written. For a comprehensive online overview of his career, including a bibliography of his mystery fiction, this webpage will do very nicely, I think. THE LONG JOURNEY HOME. When veteran British suspense-man Gilbert isn't writing witty murder-mysteries (The Black Seraphim), sturdy police-procedures for Petrella, or espionage bits for Calder & Behrens, he turns to neat chase-thrillers involving innocent bystanders--and this agreeable caper is one of them. John Benedict, 42, has become independently wealthy by developing and then selling his own electronical-engineering firm in London; he's headed back to his native New Zealand after 20 years away--when an impulse causes him to leave his charter-flight in Rome and simply wander through rural Italy, fixing trucks and tractors in exchange for room-and-board. But this footloose idyll turns to deeper involvement when John--calling himself Signor Gabriel--stops for a while with the endearing Paolis: vigorous Grandma P. runs the farm; her son Ermine is a foreman at a big factory nearby, owned by the MBA conglomerate (the very one that bought John's flexible-disc business); Ermino's beautiful daughter Anna works in the office there. (On weekends everyone does farm labor.) And John, while chastely falling for Anna, soon learns that union-leader Ermine has been threatening to expose some shady doings--including Mafia dealings--at the MBA factory. Then--sudden tragedy and feverish flight: all the Paolis perish in a Mafia-engineered fire; John survives but must flee north on foot through the mountains--nearly dying of exposure, finding some monastery sanctuary, eventually crossing the border into France. In Nice he finds an ally: former secretary Monica, on a vacation from her new job at MBA. He hitches a ride to London with trucker/smuggler ""Midge,"" a Dickensian charmer with domestic problems. And eventually, after learning that he is ""presumed dead"" (that flight to New Zealand had a fiery crash), John adopts a new identity to wage a war of vengeance against ruthless MBA. . . though there'll be a few sad casualties before justice triumphs. The basic scenario? Fairly ordinary, without a doubt. But John's a modestly likable hero, the supporting cast is distinctive (including the no-nonsense love interest provided by Monica), and Gilbert keeps everything moving along at a crisply professional pace.