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Toff #11
Accuse the Toff
The Toff - or the Honourable Richard Rollison - was "born" in the twopenny weekly Thriller in 1933. Five years later, in the first book featuring him, the Toff took on characteristics all his own and became a kind of "Saint with his feet on the ground" - a Mayfair man-about-town who could get on with the rough diamonds of the East End.
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
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About the author
John Creasey
706 books79 followersAKA Gordon Ashe, M E Cooke, Norman Deane, Robert Caine Frazer, Patrick Gill, Michael Halliday, Charles Hogarth, Brian Hope, Colin Hughes, Kyle Hunt, Margaret Lisle, Abel Mann, Peter Manton, J.J. Marric, Richard Martin, Rodney Mattheson, Anthony Morton, Jeremy York, Henry St. John Cooper and Margaret Cooke.
John Creasey (September 17, 1908 - June 9, 1973) was born in Southfields, Surrey, England and died in New Hall, Bodenham, Salisbury Wiltshire, England. He was the seventh of nine children in a working class home. He became an English author of crime thrillers, published in excess of 600 books under 20+ different pseudonyms. He invented many famous characters who would appear in a whole series of novels. Probably the most famous of these is Gideon of Scotland Yard, the basis for the television program Gideon's Way but others include Department Z, Dr. Palfrey, The Toff, Inspector Roger West, and The Baron (which was also made into a television series). In 1962, Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pen name J. J. Marric. And in 1969 he was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
John Creasey (September 17, 1908 - June 9, 1973) was born in Southfields, Surrey, England and died in New Hall, Bodenham, Salisbury Wiltshire, England. He was the seventh of nine children in a working class home. He became an English author of crime thrillers, published in excess of 600 books under 20+ different pseudonyms. He invented many famous characters who would appear in a whole series of novels. Probably the most famous of these is Gideon of Scotland Yard, the basis for the television program Gideon's Way but others include Department Z, Dr. Palfrey, The Toff, Inspector Roger West, and The Baron (which was also made into a television series). In 1962, Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pen name J. J. Marric. And in 1969 he was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 6, 2020
The Toff said to SuperintendentGrice '...I suppose if the truth were known, I’m intrigued by the Chiswick business.'
'You aren't natural.' declared Grice. 'A man who’s been trained to the limit, living under a considerable strain—you’d assume that, as he’s a Commando—cracks up and goes haywire. It’s happened often enough before. Now and again there’s an unsuspected neurotic amongst the special troops and it comes out when least expected. Why shouldn’t it be just that?’
What did you read into it?’ asked Grice, obviously genuinely interested in the other’s opinions. ‘Just a single question,’ Rollison admitted. ‘Here’s a man who goes haywire after a slight jolt from a car, sprays bullets about him and then tears off in the said car. But he doesn’t dash along the main road until he has a crash; he doesn’t do the things that a man suffering from a brainstorm is likely to. He goes down a narrow turning leading to a maze of streets—I’m quoting the Echo—and disappears completely. He could have turned off at several other points but without a maze of streets conveniently handy for losing himself in.’
'You aren't natural.' declared Grice. 'A man who’s been trained to the limit, living under a considerable strain—you’d assume that, as he’s a Commando—cracks up and goes haywire. It’s happened often enough before. Now and again there’s an unsuspected neurotic amongst the special troops and it comes out when least expected. Why shouldn’t it be just that?’
What did you read into it?’ asked Grice, obviously genuinely interested in the other’s opinions. ‘Just a single question,’ Rollison admitted. ‘Here’s a man who goes haywire after a slight jolt from a car, sprays bullets about him and then tears off in the said car. But he doesn’t dash along the main road until he has a crash; he doesn’t do the things that a man suffering from a brainstorm is likely to. He goes down a narrow turning leading to a maze of streets—I’m quoting the Echo—and disappears completely. He could have turned off at several other points but without a maze of streets conveniently handy for losing himself in.’
August 28, 2012
This is a snappy little police procedural that takes place in Britain during WWII. It's very formulaic and, frankly, lost me several times. Creasey wrote hundreds of these books and the assembly-line nature of it shows through. However, The Toff character is a reliably heroic one, British to the core.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews