They Never Looked Inside
They Never Looked Inside is the second novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. Published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1948 and in the United States by Harper & Brothers in 1949. It was Gilbert's first publication in the States. It is also the second novel to feature Gilbert's early main character, Inspector Hazlerigg. The events take place mostly in post-World War II London, in either 1945 and '46 or 1946 and '47—it is difficult to put an exact date on them. They are told by an omniscient third-person narrator but most of the scenes involve either Inspector Hazlerigg and the workings of the Metropolitan police department or the activities of a recently musted-out Army vetern, Major Angus McMann.
Boucher later called it Tommy Hambledon-ish