Bill Mercer
Created by Michael Gilbert

WILLIAM "BILL" MERCER was a Detective Chief Inspector when he first appearred in The Body Of A Girl (1972), but seven years later, he turned up as an ex-cop, working as a private detective in three short stories.

Michael Gilbert, born in 1912, is generally regarded as one of the most talented mystery writers of police procedural and espionage as well as detectiion. He began as a solicitor (now retired), who wrote fiction on the train between London and his home. He has now written more than 20 novels and more than 150 stories as well as several collections, and created several series characters.

NOVEL

• The Body Of A Girl (1972; non-PI novel)

SHORT STORIES

• "The Man at the Bottom" (April 1979, EQMM )*
• "The Man in the Middle" (May 1979, EQMM )*
• "The Man at the Top" (June 1979, EQMM )*

* Collected in The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries, 1997)