["A Complete State of Death" is a] superior crime story with a superior hero. The story has to do with a masterminded transatlantic syndicate that operates a finishing school for talented would-be criminals on a big estate near London, and with a looming graduation-day caper. The hero, whose destiny it is to uncover this technological triumph, is a Scotland Yard inspector who stands well apart from his fellows…. He is brilliant at his job, impatient of regulations, and so loathes crime that his interrogations often end in blows and bruises. Mr. Gardner shows us this complicated man from every aspect, and he emerges, in the old-fashioned sense, as a character—credible, understandable, and commanding.

A review of "A Complete State of Death," in The New Yorker, Vol. XLV, No. 34, October 11, 1969, p. 204.