Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens (book)

Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens is a 1982 short story collection by the British crime and spy writer Michael Gilbert featuring his eponymous counter-intelligence agents. It was published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and by Harper & Row in the US.[1] The book was Gilbert's second collection of Calder and Behrens stories, following Game Without Rules (1967).

Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens
First US edition 1982
AuthorMichael Gilbert
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort stories
PublisherHarper & Row (US)
Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Publication date
1982 (UK and US)
Media typePrint
Preceded byGame Without Rules 
First UK edition 1982

Stories

The book contains the following stories, all originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine:[1]

  • "The Twilight of the Gods"
  • "Emergency Exit"
  • "One-to-Ten"
  • "The Peaceful People"
  • "The Lion and the Virgin"
  • "The African Tree Beavers"
  • "Signal Tresham"
  • "The Mercenaries"
  • "Early Warning"
  • "The Killing of Michael Finnegan"
  • "The Decline and Fall of Mr. Behrens"
  • "The Last Reunion"

Literary criticism

Kirkus Reviews called the stories "a tidy assortment" for those who enjoy leisurely, literate espionage vignettes, even though few are plausible and the humour "sometimes dry to the point of invisibility".[2]

Adaptations

A series of twenty radio plays by Gilbert under the general title Game without Rules was broadcast by BBC Radio 2 between October 1968 and January 1969, including the following derived from stories collected in this anthology:[3][4]

  • "In Which Mr Calder Acquires a Dog" (adapted from "Emergency Exit")
  • "The Peaceful People"
  • "One-to-Ten"
  • "The African Tree Beavers"
  • "The Lion and the Virgin"
  • "Ahmed and Ego" (adapted from "The Decline and Fall of Mr. Behrens")
  • "The Mercenaries"
  • "Signal Tresham"
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References
  1. Gilbert, Michael (1983). Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens. Penguin Books. Copyright page. ISBN 0 14 00 6637 3.
  2. "Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens". Kirkus Reviews. 1 April 1982.
  3. "Game Without Rules". BBC Genome. 28 October 1968. Retrieved 27 September 2019. (link is to the first programme in the series)
  4. Gilbert, Michael (2009). Cooper, John (ed.). The Murder of Diana Devon. London: Robert Hale. Introduction and appendix. ISBN 978-0-7090-8924-7.
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