Fear to Tread

Fear to Tread is a mystery–crime thriller by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 1953 by Hodder and Stoughton in England and by Harper & Brothers in the United States.

Set mostly in London, it was his seventh novel in six years and built upon the favourable reputation he had achieved earlier with the well-received Smallbone Deceased and Death Has Deep Roots.

[2] It is one of numerous stories and novels by Gilbert presenting a gritty, realistic depiction of organized gangs, frequently directed by a deeply concealed mastermind who is not unearthed until the final pages.

The book's plot is the gradual discovery by Mr. Wetherall that even a number of years after the end of World War II there is a flourishing black market in London for rationed food and other items, most of them stolen by one gang or another and then "redistributed" for their profit to restaurateurs and catering services.

In a long, admiring article about Gilbert in The New York Times by the mystery writer Amanda Cross, she writes that: His heroes fight without hope of reward, because they hate bullying; they honor, albeit with regret, the slow processes of democracy and law; they are loyal to those who have fought at their side, and they do not think trust a mug's game.