Kill Claudio

Murder Room #315

by P.M. Hubbard

Copyright 1979, ex-library, hardcover with dustjacket, 186 pages. "While hunting in the English countryside, Ben Selby stumbles upon the murdered body of Peter Gaston, a friend of twenty years earlier. They had both been agents in a clandestine organization. He is convinced that Peter was killed to prevent their meeting and questions his widow. Her response is the beginning of a perilous search for something buried long ago on a remote island." Library cardholder/checkout sheet and stamps/notations inside. Dustjacket is enclosed in mylar overlay taped to cover. Binding is secure in this clean, bright book.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Philip Maitland Hubbard was an English writer. He was known principally for his crime and suspense stories although he wrote in other forms and genres as well, for example contributing short stories and poetry to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and articles, verse and parliamentary reports for Punch.

Hubbard was born in Reading in Berkshire, but was brought up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey and at Jesus College, Oxford, where in 1933 he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry with "Ovid among the Goths". He served with the Indian Civil Service from 1934 until its disbandment in 1947 upon Indian independence, after which he worked for the British Council and as Deputy Director of the National Union of Manufacturers. From 1960 until shortly before his death he worked as a freelance writer. He lived in Dorset and in Scotland, and was married with three children, although separated at his death.

P. M. Hubbard's main output was sixteen full-length novels for adults. These are typically suspense stories which have their settings in the countryside or coastline of England or Scotland (although one, The Custom of the Country, is set mainly in Pakistan). Most of the novels feature a male protagonist (although in some, such as Flush as May and The Quiet River, the protagonist is a woman) and characters who in general are middle-class, articulate and strong-willed. Most of the novels draw extensively on one or more of the author's interests and preoccupations including country pursuits, small-boat sailing, folk religion and the works of William Shakespeare.

Hubbard's novel High Tide was adapted for television and broadcast in 1980 as part of the UK ITV network's Armchair Thriller series.

He was described in his obituary in The Times as a "most imaginative and distinguished practitioner", writing with an "assurance and individuality of style and tone." He died on 17 March 1980.

Reviews

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Ben Selby stumbles upon the body of Peter Gaston, an old friend. He is convinced that Peter was killed to prevent their meeting.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

P. M. Hubbard wrote around twenty finely crafted novels of suspense. He was a master of dread and uneasiness amid ordinary circumstances. "Kill Claudio" (like Household's "Watcher in the Shadows") is a chase novel in which the central character (Ben Selby), an ex-intelligence officer, is stalked by an unknown someone out of his past who has lethal intentions. When Selby, and the wife of a good colleague killed by the stalker, resolve to find what the stalker is after, and then kill him, the book becomes a classic of cat-and-mouse fiction. There is a scene on a train in which hunter becomes hunted that is tremendous. It is a small gem of a book, though it has a mindset that predates much that we see as valuable social change. It reads like a product of the 4os, not the 70s, in that regard..

[Regine]

Annoying.