I have a vivid memory of reading Michael Gilbert's Be Shot for Sixpence (1956) for the first time. It was on a 'snow day', one of only two or three during the whole of my schooldays, when the snow in Northwich was too heavy to get to school. Because my parents were out at work themselves, I spent most of the day with friends, a brother and sister whose parents ran a corner shop across the road. But I was left to my own devices for some of the time, so I read Gilbert's book. I liked it, and one or two bits have stuck in my memory, but overall I didn't think it was as good as some Gilberts I'd read previously. Having now acquired a signed copy, I thought it was time to read it again and see what my revised verdict might be.
I don't think I realised at the tender age of thirteen or so that the 'Michael' who appears on page one was actually a jokey version of Michael Gilbert himself. But the narrator is his cousin, a chap called Philip, whose surname is never revealed (makes a change from those detectives whose first name is a closely guarded secret). Philip is courageous, and seems to have some links with the Intelligence Service, but he's also impulsive and abrasive and has a way with women which wouldn't go down too well nowadays. To be honest, I didn't find him quite as admirable as I think Gilbert intended him to be.
Philip comes across an enigmatic ad. in The Times from an old school friend called Colin, who has disappeared in mysterious circumstances, and soon finds himself - against advice and, arguably, common sense - travelling to Europe to try to track Colin down. He finds himself involved in central European politics, with curious goings-on behind the Iron Curtain.
There's a lot to enjoy in this book, as usual with Gilbert's smoothly told stories. Given that the book seems to have been written before the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, it also seems quite prescient. There are some good action scenes, although as is not unusual with Gilbert's thrillers, the climax to the story is somewhat muted. More than half a century after I first read this book, I still like it - but with reservations.