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Death in Captivity
A suspected informer is found dead in a collapsed section of an escape tunnel being dug in a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy. To protect the tunnel, the prisoners decide to move the body to another tunnel that has already been abandoned. But then the fascist captors declare the death to be murder and determine to investigate and execute the officer they suspect was responsible. It therefore becomes a race against time to find the true culprit and Captain Henry “Cuckoo” Goyles, a former headmaster, master tunneler, and sometime amateur detective takes on the case.
269 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
116 people are currently reading
631 people want to read
About the author
Michael Gilbert
143 books91 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Born in Lincolnshire in 1912, Michael Francis Gilbert was educated in Sussex before entering the University of London where he gained an LLB with honours in 1937. Gilbert was a founding member of the British Crime Writers Association, and in 1988 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America - an achievement many thought long overdue. He won the Life Achievement Anthony Award at the 1990 Boucheron in London, and in 1980 he was knighted as a Commander in the Order of the British Empire. Gilbert made his debut in 1947 with Close Quarters, and since then has become recognized as one of our most versatile British mystery writers.
He was the father of Harriett Gilbert.
Born in Lincolnshire in 1912, Michael Francis Gilbert was educated in Sussex before entering the University of London where he gained an LLB with honours in 1937. Gilbert was a founding member of the British Crime Writers Association, and in 1988 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America - an achievement many thought long overdue. He won the Life Achievement Anthony Award at the 1990 Boucheron in London, and in 1980 he was knighted as a Commander in the Order of the British Empire. Gilbert made his debut in 1947 with Close Quarters, and since then has become recognized as one of our most versatile British mystery writers.
He was the father of Harriett Gilbert.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
March 1, 2023
This is a great whodunnit set in a Prisoner-of-War camp in Italy during the days of the Italian Armistice. The plot and the characters is well written and one keeps guessing as there are so many suspects created throughout. In the end the prisoner escape just before the Germans take over and the main character makes the long journey south to Allied lines before the real villain is revealed, and one waits till the last pages for him to surface. This makes the ending a bit of an anti-climax for me personally. Also after the breakout all the other characters are just left mid air and one does not know their fates.
The author was also a British POW in Italy during World War 2 whom successfully escaped and the book is written from his experiences, which makes this book very authentic in its portrayal of camp life and escaping activities, unfortunately his ending lets this book down for me.
The author was also a British POW in Italy during World War 2 whom successfully escaped and the book is written from his experiences, which makes this book very authentic in its portrayal of camp life and escaping activities, unfortunately his ending lets this book down for me.
November 27, 2018
I watched the splendid movie based on this novel a few days ago, Danger Within (1959), dir Don Chaffey and featuring a galaxy of British stars (all male); my discussion of it will be posted on my Noirish site in January or February and, if I remember, I'll pop back here and add the link. Watching the movie made me realize it had been far too long since I'd read me some Michael Gilbert -- his Smallbone Deceased is a guilty pleasure that I've read ever decade or so since my late teens, and the other mystery novels of his that I've read have never failed to entertain me.
And so . . .
It's toward the end of World War II. Inside a POW camp in Italy, the captives -- almost exclusively British officers -- are whiling away their tedious incarceration in various ways, many of them by plotting escape. Their most hopeful venture is the expertly hidden tunnel that starts below Hut C; so far as they know, the Italians have had no idea of its existence during the long months of its construction.
One day a Greek prisoner whom the Escape Committee has suspected of being an informer disappears, and hours later the Hut C diggers discover his corpse buried in an earthfall at the end of their tunnel. How could it have got there? The jury's out on whether he was murdered but, if he was, this is a locked-room mystery with a vengeance.
One of the diggers, "Cuckoo" Goyles, is deputed to be the detective who uncovers (so to speak) the truth of the matter, and ASAP. Meanwhile, the digging must continue even as events in the world outside the camp are creating an additional, very threatening deadline for Goyles's investigation.
As time goes on, it seems evident there's still an informer among the prisoners, one who's delivering the information on all their plans into the hands of Benucci, the sadistic Fascist/Nazi in charge of policing the camp. Who could this turncoat be? Now Goyles has two mysteries to solve, not just the one.
The movie focuses on the POW aspects of the tale, and makes quite a few changes to the plot accordingly (such as revealing the solution to one of the mysteries early on), whereas the book is far more a piece of detective fiction that happens to have an unusual setting, a setting that governs a lot of the characters' actions and motivations. (The setting is authentic: Gilbert was himself a POW in Italy.) If I were asked to say which of the two I preferred, all I'd be able to reply is that they're both excellent: they're different enough from each other that it'd be silly to play them off against each other. The novel offers a richer experience, I'd say, but that's not unexpected, while there's some quite splendid invention in the movie.
It's no real spoiler to say that there's an escape: obviously there is. Although the murder/locked-room element of the tale has been solved by then, Goyles decides to keep the solution of the other strand of the mystery to himself. The book's later chapters detail the trek across Italy toward Allied lines of some of the escapees before Goyles reveals the truth. That concluding section, which I found very reminiscent of Eric Newby's memoir Love and War in the Apennines, is enjoyable enough but, I'd say, overlong. That's my sole complaint about the novel, which otherwise held me rapt.
So, two admirable artefacts born of Michael Gilbert's wartime experiences. Which to do -- read the novel or watch the movie?
I'd suggest both.
And so . . .
It's toward the end of World War II. Inside a POW camp in Italy, the captives -- almost exclusively British officers -- are whiling away their tedious incarceration in various ways, many of them by plotting escape. Their most hopeful venture is the expertly hidden tunnel that starts below Hut C; so far as they know, the Italians have had no idea of its existence during the long months of its construction.
One day a Greek prisoner whom the Escape Committee has suspected of being an informer disappears, and hours later the Hut C diggers discover his corpse buried in an earthfall at the end of their tunnel. How could it have got there? The jury's out on whether he was murdered but, if he was, this is a locked-room mystery with a vengeance.
One of the diggers, "Cuckoo" Goyles, is deputed to be the detective who uncovers (so to speak) the truth of the matter, and ASAP. Meanwhile, the digging must continue even as events in the world outside the camp are creating an additional, very threatening deadline for Goyles's investigation.
As time goes on, it seems evident there's still an informer among the prisoners, one who's delivering the information on all their plans into the hands of Benucci, the sadistic Fascist/Nazi in charge of policing the camp. Who could this turncoat be? Now Goyles has two mysteries to solve, not just the one.
The movie focuses on the POW aspects of the tale, and makes quite a few changes to the plot accordingly (such as revealing the solution to one of the mysteries early on), whereas the book is far more a piece of detective fiction that happens to have an unusual setting, a setting that governs a lot of the characters' actions and motivations. (The setting is authentic: Gilbert was himself a POW in Italy.) If I were asked to say which of the two I preferred, all I'd be able to reply is that they're both excellent: they're different enough from each other that it'd be silly to play them off against each other. The novel offers a richer experience, I'd say, but that's not unexpected, while there's some quite splendid invention in the movie.
It's no real spoiler to say that there's an escape: obviously there is. Although the murder/locked-room element of the tale has been solved by then, Goyles decides to keep the solution of the other strand of the mystery to himself. The book's later chapters detail the trek across Italy toward Allied lines of some of the escapees before Goyles reveals the truth. That concluding section, which I found very reminiscent of Eric Newby's memoir Love and War in the Apennines, is enjoyable enough but, I'd say, overlong. That's my sole complaint about the novel, which otherwise held me rapt.
So, two admirable artefacts born of Michael Gilbert's wartime experiences. Which to do -- read the novel or watch the movie?
I'd suggest both.
February 22, 2020
Published in 1952, this novel straddles a, straight-forward, Prisoner of War escape adventure, with a mystery. The book is set in 1943, in a prisoner-of-war camp for British officers in Northern Italy. Half of the prisoners are idly sitting out the war – arranging amateur theatricals, playing rugby or cricket, and giving lectures. The other half, even if also engaged in some of these activities, are far more interested in escaping. Attempts to jump the fence, or tunnel their way out abound. It is, indeed, in one of these tunnels where the mystery unfolds.
Cyriakos Coutoules is found dead in a tunnel. Considered by most of the inmates as an informer, there is not a lot of sympathy, but his death involves the men with a problem. Firstly, how to save the tunnel, with the war in Italy coming to a close and the men in danger of being handed over to the Germans. The men try to cover up what happened, but, when the Italians try to blame a prisoner, Colonel Lavery asks Henry ‘Cuckoo’ Goyles to investigate. For, in order to open up the tunnel that Coutoules was found in, would involve more than one man. Who killed him, and why?
As the prisoners learn that Sicily has been invaded, the situation becomes more serious. Our ‘hero,’ Goyles is similar to Michael Gilbert in many ways. Gilbert, like Goyles, was a bespectacled schoolteacher and he was also a prisoner of war. This whole novel is a great deal of fun, as the prisoners attempt to outwit their captors and evade both the Italian guards and the approaching Germans, while Goyles attempts to discover what really happened to Coutoules. I would love to read more by Gilbert. Sadly, there are not too many available on kindle, but I will certainly explore more of his work.
Cyriakos Coutoules is found dead in a tunnel. Considered by most of the inmates as an informer, there is not a lot of sympathy, but his death involves the men with a problem. Firstly, how to save the tunnel, with the war in Italy coming to a close and the men in danger of being handed over to the Germans. The men try to cover up what happened, but, when the Italians try to blame a prisoner, Colonel Lavery asks Henry ‘Cuckoo’ Goyles to investigate. For, in order to open up the tunnel that Coutoules was found in, would involve more than one man. Who killed him, and why?
As the prisoners learn that Sicily has been invaded, the situation becomes more serious. Our ‘hero,’ Goyles is similar to Michael Gilbert in many ways. Gilbert, like Goyles, was a bespectacled schoolteacher and he was also a prisoner of war. This whole novel is a great deal of fun, as the prisoners attempt to outwit their captors and evade both the Italian guards and the approaching Germans, while Goyles attempts to discover what really happened to Coutoules. I would love to read more by Gilbert. Sadly, there are not too many available on kindle, but I will certainly explore more of his work.
March 7, 2020
This was an absorbing story about soldiers as prisoners of war in Italy. There is a murder of an unpopular soldier believed to be collaborating with the Italian command. This was written by a man who had been a prisoner of war himself and the details of camp life were fascinating and how motivated the men were to escape.
May 9, 2019
A locked tunnel mystery...
It’s 1943, and the British officers held in a prisoner-of-war camp in north Italy take their duty to escape seriously, so the camp is riddled with tunnels. The biggest and most hopeful of these is under Hut C, elaborately hidden under a trapdoor that takes several men to open. So when a body turns up in the tunnel the question is not only how did he die but also how did he get into the tunnel? The dead man is Cyriakos Coutoules, a Greek prisoner who was widely unpopular and whom some suspected of having been an informer. When it begins to look as if his death was murder, the camp authorities quickly fix on one of the prisoners as the culprit, but the Brits are sure of his innocence. So it’s up to them to figure out how and why Coutoules died, and who did kill him...
Well, this is a very different take on the classic “locked room” mystery. In fact, to a degree the mystery becomes secondary to the drama of what’s happening in the prison camp as the Allies approach and it looks as though the Italians may surrender. The prisoners doubt this will lead to their release – they anticipate the Italians will hand them over to the Germans before the Allies arrive – so it’s all the more important that they get their plans for escape ready urgently. The Italians meantime, facing almost certain defeat, know that the Allies will be looking to hold people responsible for any war crimes that may have been committed, so they have an incentive to destroy evidence or get rid of witnesses who might be used against them. So tensions are rising all round, and some people are driven to rash actions.
There is a bit of the gung-ho British heroism attitude in the book, unsurprisingly given that it was first published in 1952 when the war was still fresh in people’s minds. But Gilbert actually gives a fairly balanced picture – not all the Brits are heroes and not all the Italians are evil, and the relationships of the prisoners to each other are shown as complex, with everything from close friendships to rivalries and dislikes. As the men begin to suspect that there’s a spy in the camp, suspicion leads to mistrust, and we see how the officers in charge have to deal with that. Gilbert doesn’t pull any punches regarding either the treatment of the prisoners or the dangers associated with their various escape attempts, so the book is hard-hitting at points. But the general camaraderie and patriotism of the prisoners also give the story a kind of good-natured warmth and a fair amount of humour which prevent the tone from becoming too bleak.
The officers in charge delegate the task of investigating the murder to “Cuckoo” Goyles, a young man whose experience of detection is restricted exclusively to having been a fan of mystery novels. He has to try to sift through the little evidence that is available without revealing anything that might alert the Italians to the existence of the tunnel. He uses his knowledge of how the camp works and of some of the weaknesses in security the escape committee has observed while making their plans. And he has to work quickly – the cruel camp commander, Captain Benucci, has a man in custody and no one has any illusions but that he’ll be found guilty.
However, I was far more interested in whether the men would escape safely than in the solution of the murder mystery, in truth. I felt Gilbert’s portrayal avoided the pitfall of being overly dramatic to the point where it crossed the credibility line, but this still left him plenty of room to create genuine tension and suspense. In his introduction, Martin Edwards tells us that Gilbert himself was a prisoner in Italy during the war and had personal experience of both failed and successful escape attempts, which no doubt is why the story feels so authentic. As the Allies draw ever nearer, the book takes on aspects of the action thriller and I found myself reading into the small hours, desperate to know how it would turn out.
This is so unlike the only other Gilbert I’ve read, Smallbone Deceased, but both are equally excellent in entirely different ways. I’m so glad the British Library has brought these books back into print and I now can’t wait to read the third one they’ve republished so far – Death Has Deep Roots. You can count me as a new Michael Gilbert fan, and if you haven’t already guessed, this one is highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
It’s 1943, and the British officers held in a prisoner-of-war camp in north Italy take their duty to escape seriously, so the camp is riddled with tunnels. The biggest and most hopeful of these is under Hut C, elaborately hidden under a trapdoor that takes several men to open. So when a body turns up in the tunnel the question is not only how did he die but also how did he get into the tunnel? The dead man is Cyriakos Coutoules, a Greek prisoner who was widely unpopular and whom some suspected of having been an informer. When it begins to look as if his death was murder, the camp authorities quickly fix on one of the prisoners as the culprit, but the Brits are sure of his innocence. So it’s up to them to figure out how and why Coutoules died, and who did kill him...
Well, this is a very different take on the classic “locked room” mystery. In fact, to a degree the mystery becomes secondary to the drama of what’s happening in the prison camp as the Allies approach and it looks as though the Italians may surrender. The prisoners doubt this will lead to their release – they anticipate the Italians will hand them over to the Germans before the Allies arrive – so it’s all the more important that they get their plans for escape ready urgently. The Italians meantime, facing almost certain defeat, know that the Allies will be looking to hold people responsible for any war crimes that may have been committed, so they have an incentive to destroy evidence or get rid of witnesses who might be used against them. So tensions are rising all round, and some people are driven to rash actions.
There is a bit of the gung-ho British heroism attitude in the book, unsurprisingly given that it was first published in 1952 when the war was still fresh in people’s minds. But Gilbert actually gives a fairly balanced picture – not all the Brits are heroes and not all the Italians are evil, and the relationships of the prisoners to each other are shown as complex, with everything from close friendships to rivalries and dislikes. As the men begin to suspect that there’s a spy in the camp, suspicion leads to mistrust, and we see how the officers in charge have to deal with that. Gilbert doesn’t pull any punches regarding either the treatment of the prisoners or the dangers associated with their various escape attempts, so the book is hard-hitting at points. But the general camaraderie and patriotism of the prisoners also give the story a kind of good-natured warmth and a fair amount of humour which prevent the tone from becoming too bleak.
The officers in charge delegate the task of investigating the murder to “Cuckoo” Goyles, a young man whose experience of detection is restricted exclusively to having been a fan of mystery novels. He has to try to sift through the little evidence that is available without revealing anything that might alert the Italians to the existence of the tunnel. He uses his knowledge of how the camp works and of some of the weaknesses in security the escape committee has observed while making their plans. And he has to work quickly – the cruel camp commander, Captain Benucci, has a man in custody and no one has any illusions but that he’ll be found guilty.
However, I was far more interested in whether the men would escape safely than in the solution of the murder mystery, in truth. I felt Gilbert’s portrayal avoided the pitfall of being overly dramatic to the point where it crossed the credibility line, but this still left him plenty of room to create genuine tension and suspense. In his introduction, Martin Edwards tells us that Gilbert himself was a prisoner in Italy during the war and had personal experience of both failed and successful escape attempts, which no doubt is why the story feels so authentic. As the Allies draw ever nearer, the book takes on aspects of the action thriller and I found myself reading into the small hours, desperate to know how it would turn out.
This is so unlike the only other Gilbert I’ve read, Smallbone Deceased, but both are equally excellent in entirely different ways. I’m so glad the British Library has brought these books back into print and I now can’t wait to read the third one they’ve republished so far – Death Has Deep Roots. You can count me as a new Michael Gilbert fan, and if you haven’t already guessed, this one is highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
August 11, 2024
Superb combination of a 'locked room' mystery and POW escape story, with the author drawing on his own experiences during WWII.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
March 26, 2019
An excellent read. A locked room murder set in a POW escape tunnel. This book gives a fascinating insight into life in, and trying to escape, a POW camp.
January 5, 2020
Simply wonderful! The Great Escape meets Lord Peter Wimsey. I'm researching more Michael Gilbert books to read because I'm his newest fan.
November 24, 2022
Did Colonel Lavery ever get an OBE?
March 13, 2020
3.5 stars for this interesting WWII thriller set in a POW camp For British officers in Italy. I read this with the Reading the Detectives group, and one of our members summed this unique setting up as the British prisoners trying to recreate their public school experiences through activities like amateur theater productions and sports. It wasn’t the POW experience of Bridge over the River Kwai, or Hogan’s Heroes, that’s for sure!
Author Gilbert was a POW and did escape, so I’m assuming his descriptions of POW life were accurate, and he does relate more brutal POW experiences through his plot. But the almost summer camp-type activities were a surprise to me, and frankly didn’t really hold my interest until about two-thirds of the way through the book.
The plot sounded intriguing- an unpopular prisoner found dead in an escape tunnel, and another prisoner asked to investigate as the Italian jailers are attempting to pin the murder on one of the British officers.
I thought it sounded like a classic locked room (tunnel?) mystery, in a particularly dangerous setting with very high stakes. Instead, while some POWs put on a theater production, others play sports, or work on their tans; true, a hardened group, the escape committee crowd, continue their escape efforts, but the contrast from every POW movie I ever saw was kind of jarring. Action finally picked up in the last third or so (no spoilers), but we really don’t find out the traitor until the very end - it was exciting (don’t want to give it away), but didn’t feel like much of a mystery, more of a thriller.
Gilbert went on to write several mysteries, some in series, and other stand-alone books. The Reading the Detectives group is planning to read his Smallbone Deceased, I look forward to seeing how he writes a more traditional mystery, set in peacetime London, and if he brings his understated humor to that book as well. I will probably read, rather than listening to an audiobook; I listened to this book, and while the narrator was good, it was rather difficult to follow the scene shifts and changes present through the subsections in many of the chapters.
Author Gilbert was a POW and did escape, so I’m assuming his descriptions of POW life were accurate, and he does relate more brutal POW experiences through his plot. But the almost summer camp-type activities were a surprise to me, and frankly didn’t really hold my interest until about two-thirds of the way through the book.
The plot sounded intriguing- an unpopular prisoner found dead in an escape tunnel, and another prisoner asked to investigate as the Italian jailers are attempting to pin the murder on one of the British officers.
I thought it sounded like a classic locked room (tunnel?) mystery, in a particularly dangerous setting with very high stakes. Instead, while some POWs put on a theater production, others play sports, or work on their tans; true, a hardened group, the escape committee crowd, continue their escape efforts, but the contrast from every POW movie I ever saw was kind of jarring. Action finally picked up in the last third or so (no spoilers), but we really don’t find out the traitor until the very end - it was exciting (don’t want to give it away), but didn’t feel like much of a mystery, more of a thriller.
Gilbert went on to write several mysteries, some in series, and other stand-alone books. The Reading the Detectives group is planning to read his Smallbone Deceased, I look forward to seeing how he writes a more traditional mystery, set in peacetime London, and if he brings his understated humor to that book as well. I will probably read, rather than listening to an audiobook; I listened to this book, and while the narrator was good, it was rather difficult to follow the scene shifts and changes present through the subsections in many of the chapters.
January 3, 2020
2020 bk 4. Sometime around 1968, a public librarian noticed me checking out a stack of Agatha Christie and asked "Have you ever tried Michael Gilbert." He was another prolific mid-century mystery/adventure author who I search out. Recently I found this title, one I hadn't read before. This is an excellent 'locked door mystery', albeit the story is a locked tunnel mystery set in a WWII POW camp in Italy. An excellent story - and one modeled on his own experiences. It wasn't until I read the foreward that I realized that M. G. was one of the escapee companions of Eric Newby, one of my early favorite travel writers. Reading this almost felt like old home week. I heartily recommend this title if you like historical mysteries or wwii stories.
March 2, 2025
The Great Escape but if uh oh there was a murder and maybe one of the POWs was a spy and also it's in Italy.
If that sounds fun, this will be fun! It's interesting how many of the tunneling details are the same between the two works (assuming TGE book and movie are at least similar; I've never read it but have watched it approximately 47,000 times). I wonder if there was an established, factual technique, or if The Great Escape, published two years earlier, set these tropes in stone.
If that sounds fun, this will be fun! It's interesting how many of the tunneling details are the same between the two works (assuming TGE book and movie are at least similar; I've never read it but have watched it approximately 47,000 times). I wonder if there was an established, factual technique, or if The Great Escape, published two years earlier, set these tropes in stone.
Read
August 5, 2020Not strictly a detective novel as much as a thriller, though there is a murder and detective of sorts. The British officers in an Italian POW camp in 1943 are, naturally, trying to tunnel their way out, and are a little startled to find a dead guy in the Hut C tunnel. Cue hijinks while they try and figure out how the man was killed and put in the escape tunnel without any of them knowing. The book is unashamedly played for comedy throughout: the POWs argue constantly and want to know why their roulette boards and theatrical properties are constantly being repurposed for escape schemes; two of the Scottish officers persist in a joint make-believe that that they are having an evening out on the Strand; Colonel Lavery dislikes being questioned by the Commandant about tunnels and suchlike, because as the Commandant well knows, it's Colonel Baird who runs the Escape Committee. And that would all be fine - people have written sitcoms about wartime before - if it weren't for the fact that Gilbert was a prisoner in an Italian POW camp in 1943 and, like some of the Hut C officers eventually have to do, escaped across enemy lines by hiking hundred of miles through the Italian countryside in winter. There's an edge to all the silliness that only really shows in the last couple of chapters, after the prisoners know the "real" Nazis are coming, and it really struck me. This isn't my favourite of Gilbert's books, but I keep thinking about it and I suspect I will come back to it again.
February 26, 2019
It's not often you find a tense, fast-paced war thriller that's also a disciplined whodunit. Where Eagles Dare is the only other one I can think of but Death In Captivity lives up to this impressive standard.
It's set in an Italian prisoner of war camp and the author is both a former POW himself who experienced what he wrote of first-hand (only up to a point, one hopes) and, by the evidence of this book, an extremely skilled novelist. I've not read any of his other novels but I certainly want to, based on this one. The pacing and use of reveals to keep up the tension and the balancing of the whodunit plot and the thriller/escape element are both first-rate.
My only small regret is that the characters were not better delineated. It's quite possible to make a set of soldiers differentiated and individually appealing, the film of Aliens shows us that. But in this book, for me there were too many Colonels I couldn't keep track of and too many hearty public-school officers. Other than that, I'm extremely impressed and will be looking out for more of Gilbert's books. Oh and the modern reprint I read has a beautiful cover.
It's set in an Italian prisoner of war camp and the author is both a former POW himself who experienced what he wrote of first-hand (only up to a point, one hopes) and, by the evidence of this book, an extremely skilled novelist. I've not read any of his other novels but I certainly want to, based on this one. The pacing and use of reveals to keep up the tension and the balancing of the whodunit plot and the thriller/escape element are both first-rate.
My only small regret is that the characters were not better delineated. It's quite possible to make a set of soldiers differentiated and individually appealing, the film of Aliens shows us that. But in this book, for me there were too many Colonels I couldn't keep track of and too many hearty public-school officers. Other than that, I'm extremely impressed and will be looking out for more of Gilbert's books. Oh and the modern reprint I read has a beautiful cover.
May 10, 2020
If I ever end up in a prisoner of war camp I hope I'll have this book with me because it does have so much detailed and I am sure very useful information on building escape-tunnels.
Am I being a bit unfair? I guess I am but in a way, I had a similar issue with this book I had with The Colour of Murder. Is this a book in which someone gets murdered? Yes? Do we learn at the end whodunit? Yes. Does that mean it's a classic mystery? Not really. It's about the war and about spies and traitors in a POW-camp. The murder has to do with who's a spy and who's a traitor and not with the "classic" motives you might find in a mystery. That doesn't make it a bad book but it wasn't what I'm usually into and I'm also not much into these kinds of spy-stories.
Am I being a bit unfair? I guess I am but in a way, I had a similar issue with this book I had with The Colour of Murder. Is this a book in which someone gets murdered? Yes? Do we learn at the end whodunit? Yes. Does that mean it's a classic mystery? Not really. It's about the war and about spies and traitors in a POW-camp. The murder has to do with who's a spy and who's a traitor and not with the "classic" motives you might find in a mystery. That doesn't make it a bad book but it wasn't what I'm usually into and I'm also not much into these kinds of spy-stories.
September 5, 2025
Intriguing murder mystery and tunnel escape drama set in July-October 1943 at a POW camp in Italy. I didn’t follow all the details of how Captain Goyles solved the mystery, but it was a good story with such an interesting setting. The author himself was a British POW at an Italian camp and so you have to think he pulled from some of his real-life experiences when he talked about day-to-day camp life.
In 1959 a movie was made from this book, entitled “Breakout” (originally called “Danger Within”) which I plan to watch soon if I can find it.
In 1959 a movie was made from this book, entitled “Breakout” (originally called “Danger Within”) which I plan to watch soon if I can find it.
May 21, 2016
This book was not easily readable. The prisoner of war experience was genuinely real for author Michael Gilbert, and this book is awkwardly paced and too real to be a successful novel. It is filled with wooden dialogue and choppy action, and I can only hope that it relieved him emotionally since the escape plans and interactions with captors must have been close to his own experiences.
August 12, 2016
I enjoy Michael Gilbert's books and this particular one was quite intriguing especially since he had actually experienced being a prisoner of war in Italy during WWII. I felt there was a good deal of authenticity in his descriptions and events. I liked the book and liked to have it on my Kindle - it was a good read.
April 10, 2023
It's always bad news when I buy a book because I love the cover, but maybe this time will be different. Also, I found this pristine copy at my local used bookstore for only $3, so it's worth a try...
And the verdict? I loved it! In fact it was so good I couldn't stay away from it and finished it in one day - and that's something I haven't done with a book in a while. This story works on so many levels, as an historical book set in an Italian POW camp near the end of WWII, a spy thriller and as a murder mystery. Many mysteries written around this time don't hold my attention because they focus only on the mechanics of the mystery and don't bother with characterization or setting. This book doesn't make that mistake. From the first page I was intrigued by the people I was meeting, started caring about the prisoners and worried who would make it out alive.
In fact, the details of life in the camp felt so real I looked the author up. Apparently this is based on his own experiences as a British officer during the war, where he was captured and sent to an Italian POW camp. "He escaped and spent several months making his way through the Italian countryside trying to reach the British lines" according to Wikipedia. The realism of this story has me believing that.
I've also read that the author's later books are better at characterization and more adventure/thriller related than his earlier mysteries. I'll definitely be looking out for more, and I'd happily recommend this to anyone who enjoys this type of story. Score one for the used bookstore down the street!
NB - This isn't a dark, depressing book, as many WWII prison camp books necessarily are. It doesn't pretend like life was fun and no one got hurt, but the focus is more on the cat-and-mouse games both sides played with each other. And the occasional bits of humor reminded this older American lady of watching Hogan's Heroes with my Dad, a WWII vet himself.
And the verdict? I loved it! In fact it was so good I couldn't stay away from it and finished it in one day - and that's something I haven't done with a book in a while. This story works on so many levels, as an historical book set in an Italian POW camp near the end of WWII, a spy thriller and as a murder mystery. Many mysteries written around this time don't hold my attention because they focus only on the mechanics of the mystery and don't bother with characterization or setting. This book doesn't make that mistake. From the first page I was intrigued by the people I was meeting, started caring about the prisoners and worried who would make it out alive.
In fact, the details of life in the camp felt so real I looked the author up. Apparently this is based on his own experiences as a British officer during the war, where he was captured and sent to an Italian POW camp. "He escaped and spent several months making his way through the Italian countryside trying to reach the British lines" according to Wikipedia. The realism of this story has me believing that.
I've also read that the author's later books are better at characterization and more adventure/thriller related than his earlier mysteries. I'll definitely be looking out for more, and I'd happily recommend this to anyone who enjoys this type of story. Score one for the used bookstore down the street!
NB - This isn't a dark, depressing book, as many WWII prison camp books necessarily are. It doesn't pretend like life was fun and no one got hurt, but the focus is more on the cat-and-mouse games both sides played with each other. And the occasional bits of humor reminded this older American lady of watching Hogan's Heroes with my Dad, a WWII vet himself.
March 3, 2020
Very good adventure/mystery story set in an Italian Prisoner of War Camp in WWII. The detective story part is good—and the murderer well-hidden—but the best parts of the book are the camp life. And the best of that is the oddness of it all: the civility and respect among most of the Italians and English soldiers (and their mutual dislike of the Germans); and the odd attempts at normalcy. I was not expecting a prisoner-only staging of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
January 19, 2020
I should have taken note of another GRers review: Death in Captivity is definitely a story that you'll want to read in one go :)
Enjoyable vintage mystery. The forward at the being of the audiobook adds depth to the story being told.
For me, the book felt like a chance to revisit The Great Escape, though in Italy, with shades of John Buchan's Thirty-nine Steps and a dash of Agatha Christie. Plenty of red herrings and I couldn't work out who it was. Fun listening. (I did increase the speed of the book as the narration felt too slow).
Quote to note: Things always sound worse from someone who's tried it and failed.
Extra: some Grandpa generation cursing (no f.bombs). A few joking suggestions are made about an Italian Officer's sexual preferences.
Enjoyable vintage mystery. The forward at the being of the audiobook adds depth to the story being told.
For me, the book felt like a chance to revisit The Great Escape, though in Italy, with shades of John Buchan's Thirty-nine Steps and a dash of Agatha Christie. Plenty of red herrings and I couldn't work out who it was. Fun listening. (I did increase the speed of the book as the narration felt too slow).
Quote to note: Things always sound worse from someone who's tried it and failed.
Extra: some Grandpa generation cursing (no f.bombs). A few joking suggestions are made about an Italian Officer's sexual preferences.
August 22, 2024
Gripping mystery with an unusual setting of a prisoner of war camp in World War 2. Opened up a bit of history new to me, in the last days before Italy surrendered.
My only slight criticism is that the cast of characters was large, which meant opening chapters were hard to follow.
My only slight criticism is that the cast of characters was large, which meant opening chapters were hard to follow.
March 27, 2019
Outstanding. Thanks to BL for bringing it back. Full review at classicmystery.blog
October 7, 2023
An unusual locked room mystery where the locked room is a Prisoner of War escape tunnel. Michael Gilbert was a PoW escapee, adding authentic colour to the story. An engaging mystery in an engaging setting. The sort of story where you immediately want to look back and reread sections knowing who the murderer is.
July 7, 2024
The murder mystery was so-so but the surrounding plot about escaping a WWII prisoner of war camp was excellent
November 23, 2022
Simple and yet marvellous
June 15, 2022
The book was 25% too long. But combination of war drama with mystery was interesting
July 25, 2022
"The obvious is rarely apparent."
Il giallo è essenzialmente una guerra all'ultimo indizio tra lettore e autore, combattuta con le armi della logica e della deduzione. Un conflitto dunque tra avversari che non lascia alcun ferito e che, anzi, nei migliori casi, soddisfa e accontenta entrambe le parti. Ma il giallo classico, oltre a possedere nella sua natura questa componente dialettica, con la guerra, quella vera, sordida e brutale, intrattiene un altro, forte legame.
Il genere infatti, pur essendo ufficialmente nato nel pieno Ottocento, muovendo dal filone del romanzo gotico e d'avventura, conobbe il suo periodo di massimo splendore, la cosiddetta Golden Age della "crime fiction", durante il primo dopoguerra, con una produzione vastissima e variegata, supportata da un mercato giallistico in costante aumento.
Con la fine della Grande Guerra, evento epocale che lasciò strascichi non indifferenti sul piano sociale, economico, politico ed esistenziale sia nei vinti che nei vincitori, gettando l'Europa in un clima di forte instabilità, preludio del futuro, devastante conflitto globale, subentrò un bisogno insistente di evasione, di svago, di fuga dal grigiore di una realtà complessa, le cui fondamenta erano state messe a dura prova dagli orrori bellici.
Il giallo non solo appagava questa sentita esigenza, ma, nell'ambito della narrativa, possedeva un'ulteriore attrattiva rispetto agli altri generi, anch'essi delegati all'intrattenimento, che ne determinò il formidabile successo: la restaurazione dell'ordine attraverso la soluzione finale chiarificatrice, l'appianamento di ogni tensione e dubbio coincidente con il discioglimento del mistero.
Se la realtà di allora era percorsa da correnti destabilizzanti, il giallo consentiva almeno idealmente di immergersi in quel mondo agognato in cui alle tribolazioni seguiva il ristoro della primigenia condizione di ordine e di pace.
Nel primo Novecento, l'uomo ritrovò nel giallo quella saldezza e quel bisogno di sicurezza che tanto mancavano nella società a loro contemporanea. Non ci si deve stupire dunque per la grande popolarità e l'immensa platea di lettori che questo particolare tipo di narrativa incontrò in quel frangente storico così complesso.
Il giallo divenne così la moda letteraria del momento, tanto che anche gli scettici, spinti dai grandi profitti che spesso ne derivavano, tentarono di seguire l'irresistibile onda del "crimine su carta".
Tuttavia, ad ogni inizio si contrappone una fine, per il giallo rappresentata dallo scoppio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Il disagio, la precarietà e le tensioni percepibili nel dopoguerra deflagrarono in un'altra, terribile guerra. Una guerra talmente devastante che stravolse drasticamente ogni aspetto della storia occidentale. Una guerra combattuta soprattutto su un fronte ideologico, che condusse l'umanità in un abisso di mostruosità, di violenza e di orrore senza pari.
Questo clima mefitico non poteva che permeare anche la letteratura e quella volontà di evasione, quel bisogno di svago precedenti risultarono ormai inadeguati, incapaci di nascondere gli abomini di cui l'umanità si era macchiata. Non era più il tempo di evadere dai problemi, ma di affrontarli, di rifletterci sopra, di riconsiderare l'uomo stesso alla luce della barbarie moderna. Questa tendenza si riflesse naturalmente nella cultura e nell'arte del tempo.
Il giallo, come tutta la letteratura, è un fenomeno storico-sociale ed è filtro della sua epoca, per cui non poteva che assorbire, nel secondo dopoguerra, influssi esistenzialistici e pessimistici. Il giallo classico iniziò dunque a cadere in declino, dapprima facendo proprie caratteristiche prima assenti, poi venendo soppiantato da sottogeneri più aderenti ad una realtà disincantata e attenta al disagio, alla sofferenza. Nella confortevolezza del delitto borghese, "pulito", costruito in funzione della rassicurante e rasserenatrice soluzione, cominciarono ad intravedersi delle crepe via via più tangibili, segno che quel meccanismo tanto piacevole, tanto avulso in una sfera di intellettualità pura, di escapismo, quasi a formare un mondo altro, si era ormai irrimediabilmente rotto. Subentrò l'epoca del tormento, del nichilismo e dell'alienazione totale e nulla fu più come prima. Il mondo era cambiato totalmente e con esso il giallo, non più rifugio dai mali della realtà, ristoro intrattenitivo e intellettuale, ma riflesso dei traumi esistenziali, mezzo con cui esprimere un ormai insopprimibile senso di disorientamento.
Naturalmente questo cambiamento avvenne in modo graduale e vi furono avvisaglie del nuovo sentiero percorso dalla "crime fiction" già in alcune opere dell'ultimo periodo della GAD: da "Alla deriva" di Christie, in cui i bombardamenti mettono in moto la trama, a "Saper morire" di Carter Dickson, in cui si avverte, pur se da lontano, l'angoscia di un paese in guerra.
Molti giallisti hanno vissuto il conflitto in prima persona, trasponendo successivamente la propria esperienza nell'ambito narrativo: tra gli esempi più noti, si può citare la trilogia di romanzi di Christopher Bush, composta da "The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel", "The Case of the Murdered Major" e "The Case of the Fighting Soldier", che è ambientata nei campi di prigionia allestiti nel periodo bellico.
Dunque la guerra irruppe anche nel mondo del delitto letterario e cominciò a cambiarne le caratteristiche, ne spostò gli obiettivi e le finalità.
È ciò che avviene in un romanzo che può essere considerato un esempio del passaggio progressivo dal giallo classico verso filoni più attenti al lato sociale, ai drammi umani: "Death in Captivity" (1952) di Michael Gilbert.
"Death in Captivity" è un romanzo che si colloca temporalmente nel decisivo e cruciale frangente in cui la crisi del giallo deduttivo ad enigma favorisce l'insorgenza di nuove tendenze, meno interessate al plot, al meccanismo delittuoso, e più incentrate sul fattore umano, sulle vicende sociali dell'epoca. È il boom del noir, dell'hard-boiled e delle spy stories.
Nel romanzo di Michael Gilbert si avverte nitidamente questo cambiamento, in quanto, sebbene la trama segua ancora lo schema classico e presenti tutti i crismi del giallo tradizionale, essa non si esaurisce in essi, ma anzi si arricchisce di nuovi echi, assorbendo temi e stilemi allora in voga, specie quelli relativi alla spy story e al noir.
È dunque un'opera che riflette un'epoca e fa uso della guerra, di cui l'autore si sente autorizzato a parlare per via della sua esperienza sul campo, per creare una trama che pur agganciandosi al passato, manifesta i sintomi della narrativa del futuro.
L'opera è ambientata in un campo di prigionia del nord Italia, nel 1943, dove sono rinchiusi molti soldati e ufficiali inglesi catturati dai fascisti, e si apre con il capitano Benucci, comandante del campo, che mette in guardia il rappresentante dei prigionieri, il colonnello Lavery, con oscure allusioni, annunciando che, in caso di futuri incidenti interni, ci saranno spiacevoli conseguenze di cui lui dovrà rispondere. I timori del capitano sono infatti ben fondati, dal momento che il campo ospita tra i più abili esperti di evasione dell'Inghilterra che, per pura sventura, sono finiti sotto le grinfie delle camicie nere: l'occhialuto e riflessivo Henry "Cuckoo" Goyles, l'impulsivo e tenace Alec Overstrand, il saggio e accorto Tony Long e il sarcastico Roger Byfold. Ovviamente, in attesa che gli Alleati sbarchino sulla penisola e inizino a contrattaccare i nemici, i soldati più valorosi non restano con le mani in mano. Nella capanna C, dove sono collocate le stanze degli ufficiali considerati più pericolosi, difatti c'è un grande fermento per la realizzazione di un astuto tunnel sotterraneo. Scavato abilmente al di sotto della pesante stufa della cucina, la quale può essere issata da non meno di quattro uomini attraverso un sistema di pulegge intelligentemente mascherato come fili regolabili usati per asciugare il bucato, il tunnel si espande costantemente. Un'impresa non da poco, ma talmente ben organizzata da far sperare in un grande successo.
Un problema non indifferente è però costituito da un prigioniero greco, Cyriakos Coutoules, che sembra tanto interessato alle loro imprese da far sospettare a molti che in realtà non sia altro che una spia al soldo dei fascisti. Tuttavia la soluzione è presto trovata: il colonnello Lavery lo sposta in una camera adiacente ai quartieri dei carabinieri, nella cinta esterna del campo, in modo tale che non interferisca con il delicato lavoro di scavo. Una precauzione sensata che, però, si rivela del tutto inutile dal momento che un giorno, aprendo la botola ed entrando nel pozzo per proseguire l'opera, Goyles, Overstrand e Byfold vi trovano proprio Coutoules. Nessun pericolo però che riveli il segreto agli italiani: Coutoules è infatti morto, apparentemente soffocato dal peso della sabbia crollata dal soffitto del tunnel, che evidentemente aveva ceduto.
Eppure per gli inglesi è un problema serio: non solo devono scavare per liberare il passaggio dai detriti, allungando così i tempi, ma sono costretti anche a trasportare altrove il cadavere del greco. Non possono infatti riferire la verità alle autorità del campo senza dar via la loro unica via di fuga.
Grazie alla tempestività e all'alacrità dei membri del comitato di evasione, viene subito stabilito che il cadavere debba essere traslato nel tunnel scavato nella capanna A, scoperto già da tempo dai fascisti e dunque non più in uso. L'abile organizzazione dei soldati fa sì che l'operazione vada a buon fine. Eppure molti quesiti rimangono insoluti e particolarmente misteriosi: cosa ci faceva Coutoules in quel tunnel? Come ci era finito visto che per azionare la botola era necessaria la forza di quattro uomini, non contando che nessun ufficiale collocato in quella capanna aveva visto o sentito nessuno entrare nella cucina durante la notte? Inoltre è dubbia la natura della morte: è incidente o omicidio?
Si tratta di una morte assurda e impossibile, ma la realtà del campo di prigionia non è adatta alla riflessione, in quanto ci sono questioni più urgenti da affrontare.
Infatti, non appena informato il capitano Benucci circa la morte di Coutoules, che gli inglesi hanno camuffato in modo tale che sembrasse avvenuta nell'altro tunnel, quest'ultimo, ispezionando il luogo con più meticolosità di quanto ci si sarebbe aspettati, incolpa Byfold della morte, avendo trovato le sue impronte su alcune travi, in realtà utilizzate da questi per ricreare al meglio le condizioni in cui il corpo era stato rinvenuto nella capanna C. Se prima la morte del greco poteva rimanere anche insoluta –in fondo si è un guerra ed è comunque una spia in meno– ora scoprire la verità sul caso diventa essenziale per salvare dalla fucilazione un innocente. E mentre il tempo scorre inesorabile, in una condizione di pericolo costante, tra risse interne, tradimenti e segreti nascosti, il comitato di fuga affida al saggio Goyles il compito di investigare per scoprire la verità. Una verità che porterà alla luce una rete di menzogne e di corruzione tale che chiunque avrebbe preferito non vedere. Chiunque tranne Henry Goyles, che, una volta fiutata una pista, non può che seguirla, ad ogni costo. Anche se il prezzo da pagare sarà alto.
"Death in Captivity" è un mystery molto atipico, che assomma in sé tendenze tradizionali, legate al giallo classico, e spinte centrifughe, relative alle nuove realtà letterarie che fioriscono nel secondo dopoguerra. È un'opera complessa, leggibile sotto diversi punti di vista, in quanto si fa intermediaria di un'epoca di passaggio in cui mutano profondamente le chiavi di lettura e le necessità che la narrativa vuole rappresentare.
Tale ricchezza tematica e stilistica si ripercuote in primis sulla struttura dell'opera, che si configura su più piani narrativi apparentemente paralleli, ma costantemente convergenti. Da un lato Gilbert snoda tra le pagine la trama gialla, fatta più di interrogatori che di indagini vere e proprie (impossibili da condurre per via del contesto di prigionia), dall'altra incastra tra queste sequenze scorci narrativi dedicati alla guerra, alle condizioni e alla vita dei prigionieri inglesi nel campo italiano. Dunque ad una dimensione puramente intrattenitiva, ludica, se ne affianca una più descrittiva, dai risvolti sociali ed esistenziali, che testimonia l'orrore della guerra, la condizione di smarrimento.
Gilbert inoltre non si limita a puntare lo sguardo solo sul lato degli inglesi, ma nella storia inserisce anche scene in cui la focalizzazione è puntata sui fascisti, sulla parte nemica, per dare una visione d'insieme delle vicende.
Questo continuo alternarsi di piani narrativi, che si mescolano e risultano interdipendenti tra di loro, rappresentato strutturalmente anche dalla successione, all'interno del romanzo, di brevi capitoli aventi ciascuno una differente prospettiva, quasi a raffigurare la frammentazione di un'epoca e di uno stile letterario, contribuisce ad amalgamare più generi, mescolandoli saldamente senza che uno prevalga sull'altro. Il giallo è sempre alla base, ma la sua presenza è come un baluginio, una luce a intermittenza che scompare, per poi riapparire improvvisamente nei momenti più inaspettati.
È dunque un'opera ambivalente, in cui si imposta una doppia sfida, o una sfida nella sfida: se da un lato vi sono tensione e mistero legati all'identità del colpevole e al metodo utilizzato per uccidere, dall'altro la suspense si regge sull'eventuale riuscita della fuga degli inglesi, sul binomio oppressi-oppressori.
Una duplicità che non solo rende entrambe le parti complesse e avvincenti, ma che dona un fascino ulteriore alla trama, rende l'atmosfera ancora più tesa e coinvolgente.
Dunque il romanzo, pur partendo da fondamenta "gialle", comincia a deformarsi e ad assumere sembianze che rammentano il noir, la spy story. In questo non si può che intravedere la fine dell'era d'oro del giallo, della sfida pura, dell'intrattenimento puramente intellettuale scevro di passioni. Non restano che frammenti, frammenti lasciati dalla guerra e da una realtà sofferente, in cui l'evasione come fuga dal reale non è più possibile. Neanche l'intrattenimento riesce a distogliere la mente dalla ferocia cinica, depravata di cui l'uomo è stato capace e nel romanzo questi influssi, questi tormenti s'infiltrano tra le pagine, creando misteri più personali, più sentiti, che tendono a far riflettere ed emozionare.
Per compiere tale operazione di sintesi tra giallo puro e influssi più esistenziali e sociali, legati al periodo bellico, Gilbert si avvale della sua esperienza personale in guerra. Il romanzo infatti si impernia sul suo vissuto personale, come dimostra anche la dedica iniziale a due suoi commilitoni: arruolatosi nella Royal Horse Artillery, lo scrittore fu poi catturato dai nemici in Africa e fu portato in un campo di prigionia in Italia, a Fontanellato, da cui fuggì assieme ad alcuni suoi compagni al tempo dello sbarco in Sicilia, nel 1943.
Il fatto che Gilbert abbia vissuto in prima persona la situazione da cui muove l'opera, rende quest'ultima particolarmente vivida, reale e sentita. Tutto questo si traduce in un grande ritratto di un campo di prigionia fascista, estremamente accurato nella rappresentazione della routine dei prigionieri, dei rapporti interni ed esterni con gli italiani, l'atteggiamento degli aguzzini, le tattiche adottate per la fuga, ma anche nella lieve eppur efficace caratterizzazione del clima di paura, di sospetto, di continuo scontro tra fazioni opposte. Restituisce così un quadro preciso e vitale di quel frangente storico, senza però appesantirlo con lunghe e tediose descrizioni, ma delineandolo con pennellate rapide ed efficaci.
Il clima particolarmente pesante viene poi costantemente alleggerito attraverso l'ironia, il sarcasmo, che spezzano toni che potrebbero risultare alla lunga troppo cupi.
Il giallo è essenzialmente una guerra all'ultimo indizio tra lettore e autore, combattuta con le armi della logica e della deduzione. Un conflitto dunque tra avversari che non lascia alcun ferito e che, anzi, nei migliori casi, soddisfa e accontenta entrambe le parti. Ma il giallo classico, oltre a possedere nella sua natura questa componente dialettica, con la guerra, quella vera, sordida e brutale, intrattiene un altro, forte legame.
Il genere infatti, pur essendo ufficialmente nato nel pieno Ottocento, muovendo dal filone del romanzo gotico e d'avventura, conobbe il suo periodo di massimo splendore, la cosiddetta Golden Age della "crime fiction", durante il primo dopoguerra, con una produzione vastissima e variegata, supportata da un mercato giallistico in costante aumento.
Con la fine della Grande Guerra, evento epocale che lasciò strascichi non indifferenti sul piano sociale, economico, politico ed esistenziale sia nei vinti che nei vincitori, gettando l'Europa in un clima di forte instabilità, preludio del futuro, devastante conflitto globale, subentrò un bisogno insistente di evasione, di svago, di fuga dal grigiore di una realtà complessa, le cui fondamenta erano state messe a dura prova dagli orrori bellici.
Il giallo non solo appagava questa sentita esigenza, ma, nell'ambito della narrativa, possedeva un'ulteriore attrattiva rispetto agli altri generi, anch'essi delegati all'intrattenimento, che ne determinò il formidabile successo: la restaurazione dell'ordine attraverso la soluzione finale chiarificatrice, l'appianamento di ogni tensione e dubbio coincidente con il discioglimento del mistero.
Se la realtà di allora era percorsa da correnti destabilizzanti, il giallo consentiva almeno idealmente di immergersi in quel mondo agognato in cui alle tribolazioni seguiva il ristoro della primigenia condizione di ordine e di pace.
Nel primo Novecento, l'uomo ritrovò nel giallo quella saldezza e quel bisogno di sicurezza che tanto mancavano nella società a loro contemporanea. Non ci si deve stupire dunque per la grande popolarità e l'immensa platea di lettori che questo particolare tipo di narrativa incontrò in quel frangente storico così complesso.
Il giallo divenne così la moda letteraria del momento, tanto che anche gli scettici, spinti dai grandi profitti che spesso ne derivavano, tentarono di seguire l'irresistibile onda del "crimine su carta".
Tuttavia, ad ogni inizio si contrappone una fine, per il giallo rappresentata dallo scoppio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Il disagio, la precarietà e le tensioni percepibili nel dopoguerra deflagrarono in un'altra, terribile guerra. Una guerra talmente devastante che stravolse drasticamente ogni aspetto della storia occidentale. Una guerra combattuta soprattutto su un fronte ideologico, che condusse l'umanità in un abisso di mostruosità, di violenza e di orrore senza pari.
Questo clima mefitico non poteva che permeare anche la letteratura e quella volontà di evasione, quel bisogno di svago precedenti risultarono ormai inadeguati, incapaci di nascondere gli abomini di cui l'umanità si era macchiata. Non era più il tempo di evadere dai problemi, ma di affrontarli, di rifletterci sopra, di riconsiderare l'uomo stesso alla luce della barbarie moderna. Questa tendenza si riflesse naturalmente nella cultura e nell'arte del tempo.
Il giallo, come tutta la letteratura, è un fenomeno storico-sociale ed è filtro della sua epoca, per cui non poteva che assorbire, nel secondo dopoguerra, influssi esistenzialistici e pessimistici. Il giallo classico iniziò dunque a cadere in declino, dapprima facendo proprie caratteristiche prima assenti, poi venendo soppiantato da sottogeneri più aderenti ad una realtà disincantata e attenta al disagio, alla sofferenza. Nella confortevolezza del delitto borghese, "pulito", costruito in funzione della rassicurante e rasserenatrice soluzione, cominciarono ad intravedersi delle crepe via via più tangibili, segno che quel meccanismo tanto piacevole, tanto avulso in una sfera di intellettualità pura, di escapismo, quasi a formare un mondo altro, si era ormai irrimediabilmente rotto. Subentrò l'epoca del tormento, del nichilismo e dell'alienazione totale e nulla fu più come prima. Il mondo era cambiato totalmente e con esso il giallo, non più rifugio dai mali della realtà, ristoro intrattenitivo e intellettuale, ma riflesso dei traumi esistenziali, mezzo con cui esprimere un ormai insopprimibile senso di disorientamento.
Naturalmente questo cambiamento avvenne in modo graduale e vi furono avvisaglie del nuovo sentiero percorso dalla "crime fiction" già in alcune opere dell'ultimo periodo della GAD: da "Alla deriva" di Christie, in cui i bombardamenti mettono in moto la trama, a "Saper morire" di Carter Dickson, in cui si avverte, pur se da lontano, l'angoscia di un paese in guerra.
Molti giallisti hanno vissuto il conflitto in prima persona, trasponendo successivamente la propria esperienza nell'ambito narrativo: tra gli esempi più noti, si può citare la trilogia di romanzi di Christopher Bush, composta da "The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel", "The Case of the Murdered Major" e "The Case of the Fighting Soldier", che è ambientata nei campi di prigionia allestiti nel periodo bellico.
Dunque la guerra irruppe anche nel mondo del delitto letterario e cominciò a cambiarne le caratteristiche, ne spostò gli obiettivi e le finalità.
È ciò che avviene in un romanzo che può essere considerato un esempio del passaggio progressivo dal giallo classico verso filoni più attenti al lato sociale, ai drammi umani: "Death in Captivity" (1952) di Michael Gilbert.
"Death in Captivity" è un romanzo che si colloca temporalmente nel decisivo e cruciale frangente in cui la crisi del giallo deduttivo ad enigma favorisce l'insorgenza di nuove tendenze, meno interessate al plot, al meccanismo delittuoso, e più incentrate sul fattore umano, sulle vicende sociali dell'epoca. È il boom del noir, dell'hard-boiled e delle spy stories.
Nel romanzo di Michael Gilbert si avverte nitidamente questo cambiamento, in quanto, sebbene la trama segua ancora lo schema classico e presenti tutti i crismi del giallo tradizionale, essa non si esaurisce in essi, ma anzi si arricchisce di nuovi echi, assorbendo temi e stilemi allora in voga, specie quelli relativi alla spy story e al noir.
È dunque un'opera che riflette un'epoca e fa uso della guerra, di cui l'autore si sente autorizzato a parlare per via della sua esperienza sul campo, per creare una trama che pur agganciandosi al passato, manifesta i sintomi della narrativa del futuro.
L'opera è ambientata in un campo di prigionia del nord Italia, nel 1943, dove sono rinchiusi molti soldati e ufficiali inglesi catturati dai fascisti, e si apre con il capitano Benucci, comandante del campo, che mette in guardia il rappresentante dei prigionieri, il colonnello Lavery, con oscure allusioni, annunciando che, in caso di futuri incidenti interni, ci saranno spiacevoli conseguenze di cui lui dovrà rispondere. I timori del capitano sono infatti ben fondati, dal momento che il campo ospita tra i più abili esperti di evasione dell'Inghilterra che, per pura sventura, sono finiti sotto le grinfie delle camicie nere: l'occhialuto e riflessivo Henry "Cuckoo" Goyles, l'impulsivo e tenace Alec Overstrand, il saggio e accorto Tony Long e il sarcastico Roger Byfold. Ovviamente, in attesa che gli Alleati sbarchino sulla penisola e inizino a contrattaccare i nemici, i soldati più valorosi non restano con le mani in mano. Nella capanna C, dove sono collocate le stanze degli ufficiali considerati più pericolosi, difatti c'è un grande fermento per la realizzazione di un astuto tunnel sotterraneo. Scavato abilmente al di sotto della pesante stufa della cucina, la quale può essere issata da non meno di quattro uomini attraverso un sistema di pulegge intelligentemente mascherato come fili regolabili usati per asciugare il bucato, il tunnel si espande costantemente. Un'impresa non da poco, ma talmente ben organizzata da far sperare in un grande successo.
Un problema non indifferente è però costituito da un prigioniero greco, Cyriakos Coutoules, che sembra tanto interessato alle loro imprese da far sospettare a molti che in realtà non sia altro che una spia al soldo dei fascisti. Tuttavia la soluzione è presto trovata: il colonnello Lavery lo sposta in una camera adiacente ai quartieri dei carabinieri, nella cinta esterna del campo, in modo tale che non interferisca con il delicato lavoro di scavo. Una precauzione sensata che, però, si rivela del tutto inutile dal momento che un giorno, aprendo la botola ed entrando nel pozzo per proseguire l'opera, Goyles, Overstrand e Byfold vi trovano proprio Coutoules. Nessun pericolo però che riveli il segreto agli italiani: Coutoules è infatti morto, apparentemente soffocato dal peso della sabbia crollata dal soffitto del tunnel, che evidentemente aveva ceduto.
Eppure per gli inglesi è un problema serio: non solo devono scavare per liberare il passaggio dai detriti, allungando così i tempi, ma sono costretti anche a trasportare altrove il cadavere del greco. Non possono infatti riferire la verità alle autorità del campo senza dar via la loro unica via di fuga.
Grazie alla tempestività e all'alacrità dei membri del comitato di evasione, viene subito stabilito che il cadavere debba essere traslato nel tunnel scavato nella capanna A, scoperto già da tempo dai fascisti e dunque non più in uso. L'abile organizzazione dei soldati fa sì che l'operazione vada a buon fine. Eppure molti quesiti rimangono insoluti e particolarmente misteriosi: cosa ci faceva Coutoules in quel tunnel? Come ci era finito visto che per azionare la botola era necessaria la forza di quattro uomini, non contando che nessun ufficiale collocato in quella capanna aveva visto o sentito nessuno entrare nella cucina durante la notte? Inoltre è dubbia la natura della morte: è incidente o omicidio?
Si tratta di una morte assurda e impossibile, ma la realtà del campo di prigionia non è adatta alla riflessione, in quanto ci sono questioni più urgenti da affrontare.
Infatti, non appena informato il capitano Benucci circa la morte di Coutoules, che gli inglesi hanno camuffato in modo tale che sembrasse avvenuta nell'altro tunnel, quest'ultimo, ispezionando il luogo con più meticolosità di quanto ci si sarebbe aspettati, incolpa Byfold della morte, avendo trovato le sue impronte su alcune travi, in realtà utilizzate da questi per ricreare al meglio le condizioni in cui il corpo era stato rinvenuto nella capanna C. Se prima la morte del greco poteva rimanere anche insoluta –in fondo si è un guerra ed è comunque una spia in meno– ora scoprire la verità sul caso diventa essenziale per salvare dalla fucilazione un innocente. E mentre il tempo scorre inesorabile, in una condizione di pericolo costante, tra risse interne, tradimenti e segreti nascosti, il comitato di fuga affida al saggio Goyles il compito di investigare per scoprire la verità. Una verità che porterà alla luce una rete di menzogne e di corruzione tale che chiunque avrebbe preferito non vedere. Chiunque tranne Henry Goyles, che, una volta fiutata una pista, non può che seguirla, ad ogni costo. Anche se il prezzo da pagare sarà alto.
"Death in Captivity" è un mystery molto atipico, che assomma in sé tendenze tradizionali, legate al giallo classico, e spinte centrifughe, relative alle nuove realtà letterarie che fioriscono nel secondo dopoguerra. È un'opera complessa, leggibile sotto diversi punti di vista, in quanto si fa intermediaria di un'epoca di passaggio in cui mutano profondamente le chiavi di lettura e le necessità che la narrativa vuole rappresentare.
Tale ricchezza tematica e stilistica si ripercuote in primis sulla struttura dell'opera, che si configura su più piani narrativi apparentemente paralleli, ma costantemente convergenti. Da un lato Gilbert snoda tra le pagine la trama gialla, fatta più di interrogatori che di indagini vere e proprie (impossibili da condurre per via del contesto di prigionia), dall'altra incastra tra queste sequenze scorci narrativi dedicati alla guerra, alle condizioni e alla vita dei prigionieri inglesi nel campo italiano. Dunque ad una dimensione puramente intrattenitiva, ludica, se ne affianca una più descrittiva, dai risvolti sociali ed esistenziali, che testimonia l'orrore della guerra, la condizione di smarrimento.
Gilbert inoltre non si limita a puntare lo sguardo solo sul lato degli inglesi, ma nella storia inserisce anche scene in cui la focalizzazione è puntata sui fascisti, sulla parte nemica, per dare una visione d'insieme delle vicende.
Questo continuo alternarsi di piani narrativi, che si mescolano e risultano interdipendenti tra di loro, rappresentato strutturalmente anche dalla successione, all'interno del romanzo, di brevi capitoli aventi ciascuno una differente prospettiva, quasi a raffigurare la frammentazione di un'epoca e di uno stile letterario, contribuisce ad amalgamare più generi, mescolandoli saldamente senza che uno prevalga sull'altro. Il giallo è sempre alla base, ma la sua presenza è come un baluginio, una luce a intermittenza che scompare, per poi riapparire improvvisamente nei momenti più inaspettati.
È dunque un'opera ambivalente, in cui si imposta una doppia sfida, o una sfida nella sfida: se da un lato vi sono tensione e mistero legati all'identità del colpevole e al metodo utilizzato per uccidere, dall'altro la suspense si regge sull'eventuale riuscita della fuga degli inglesi, sul binomio oppressi-oppressori.
Una duplicità che non solo rende entrambe le parti complesse e avvincenti, ma che dona un fascino ulteriore alla trama, rende l'atmosfera ancora più tesa e coinvolgente.
Dunque il romanzo, pur partendo da fondamenta "gialle", comincia a deformarsi e ad assumere sembianze che rammentano il noir, la spy story. In questo non si può che intravedere la fine dell'era d'oro del giallo, della sfida pura, dell'intrattenimento puramente intellettuale scevro di passioni. Non restano che frammenti, frammenti lasciati dalla guerra e da una realtà sofferente, in cui l'evasione come fuga dal reale non è più possibile. Neanche l'intrattenimento riesce a distogliere la mente dalla ferocia cinica, depravata di cui l'uomo è stato capace e nel romanzo questi influssi, questi tormenti s'infiltrano tra le pagine, creando misteri più personali, più sentiti, che tendono a far riflettere ed emozionare.
Per compiere tale operazione di sintesi tra giallo puro e influssi più esistenziali e sociali, legati al periodo bellico, Gilbert si avvale della sua esperienza personale in guerra. Il romanzo infatti si impernia sul suo vissuto personale, come dimostra anche la dedica iniziale a due suoi commilitoni: arruolatosi nella Royal Horse Artillery, lo scrittore fu poi catturato dai nemici in Africa e fu portato in un campo di prigionia in Italia, a Fontanellato, da cui fuggì assieme ad alcuni suoi compagni al tempo dello sbarco in Sicilia, nel 1943.
Il fatto che Gilbert abbia vissuto in prima persona la situazione da cui muove l'opera, rende quest'ultima particolarmente vivida, reale e sentita. Tutto questo si traduce in un grande ritratto di un campo di prigionia fascista, estremamente accurato nella rappresentazione della routine dei prigionieri, dei rapporti interni ed esterni con gli italiani, l'atteggiamento degli aguzzini, le tattiche adottate per la fuga, ma anche nella lieve eppur efficace caratterizzazione del clima di paura, di sospetto, di continuo scontro tra fazioni opposte. Restituisce così un quadro preciso e vitale di quel frangente storico, senza però appesantirlo con lunghe e tediose descrizioni, ma delineandolo con pennellate rapide ed efficaci.
Il clima particolarmente pesante viene poi costantemente alleggerito attraverso l'ironia, il sarcasmo, che spezzano toni che potrebbero risultare alla lunga troppo cupi.
September 2, 2019
Although the book is described as a mystery novel, it's really more an escape story, with an ensemble cast rather than a single, brilliant detective. Most of the scene is in a POW camp for Allied officers n Northern Italy. The Allies have invaded Sicily and both the prisoners and their guards are getting restless. But the ruthless, Nazi-trained Carabinieri captain Benetti seems intent on playing cat-and-mouse games with the prisoners, especially when the body of a Greek prisoner is found suffocated under a collapsed escape tunnel. The prisoners are in a quandary : how to get rid of the body without revealing the presence of that tunnel? One of the officers, Goyles, finds that there are various aspects of the death that don't make sense, and as it was believed that the Greek prisoner had been an informer to the Italian captors, there's some suspicion that he might have been killed by Captain Benetti. Still, the Italians seem to be strangely well prepared to foil the prisoners' plans. But there' s not much time for sleuthing : the entire camp is mobilized by the Escape Committee to help with the tunnel and other escape activities, because they all realize that once the Italians hand over the camp to the Nazis, things will turn really nasty. So Goyles and some of his companions end up wandering in through Italy, towards the advancing Allied lines, for a couple of weeks, and the question of who killed the Greek seems to have moved to the back of everyone's mind. But not really, because at the end, it turns out that Goyles had, after all, understood what was behind all the strange coincidences and odd behaviors in those last weeks in the camp.
I think that the best way to enjoy this book is to read it as an escape story and to marvel at the ingenuity by which the officers try to escape, dig tunnels, bamboozle their guards, and in general keep up their physical and mental strength. There are some funny interludes, such as when the prisoners put up a play or take walks down memory lane. The author plays fair in the sense of the classic mystery, that is : when Goyles explains what had really been going on in the camp, the reader slaps his or her head and exclaims : "Of course! How come I didn't see that?!".
I think that the best way to enjoy this book is to read it as an escape story and to marvel at the ingenuity by which the officers try to escape, dig tunnels, bamboozle their guards, and in general keep up their physical and mental strength. There are some funny interludes, such as when the prisoners put up a play or take walks down memory lane. The author plays fair in the sense of the classic mystery, that is : when Goyles explains what had really been going on in the camp, the reader slaps his or her head and exclaims : "Of course! How come I didn't see that?!".
January 19, 2019
An excellent book. Great writing, setting, characterization. Ingenious plot. Mounting suspense. Lots of dry humour and English understatement. The short chapters make for an agile reading. Unputdownable.
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