The Man Who Could Not Sleep and Other Mysteries

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(CC) Photo: Jerry Bauer
Michael Gilbert on the back cover of Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, 1982

The Man Who Could Not Sleep and Other Mysteries is a collection of radio plays by the British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 2011 by the British company Robert Hale and unpublished in the United States. It contains 25 previously uncollected stories, as well as an introduction by John Cooper and an appendix. The first twelve stories feature Inspector Petrella, one of the many recurring characters that Gilbert created throughout his long career of writing both novels and short stories. Its next story has Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, followed by four about Inspector Hazlerigg. Their locales are mostly in London and its environs. A number of them, such as "Somebody" and "Old Mr Martin", begin innocuously, then take a turn to unexpected grimness. "Michael was an exceptionally fine storyteller, but he's hard to classify," said one of his American publishers after his death. "He's not a hard-boiled writer in the classic sense, but there is a hard edge to him, a feeling within his work that not all of society is rational, that virtue is not always rewarded.".[1] Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988[2] and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award.[3]

Stories in order

  1. Douglas Greene of Crippen & Landrau, quoted in The New York Times, 15 February 2006
  2. Michael Gilbert (obituary), 10 February 2006. Retrieved on 13 November 2012.
  3. History of Guests of Honor. Retrieved on 5 July 2014.