John Creasey wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 novels. Most of them are crime fiction. Short pulpy things that could be churned out a a fast clip. However, I’d never heard of him until Michael’s Books put a large number of them out in their free pile. Because I’m an addict, I grabbed them not even really knowing what they were about. I could tell they were short pulpy things, but beyond that I had no idea.
The Toff Proceeds is the 7th in the Toff mystery series. It’s the first one I have, so I started with it as far as my Creasey reading goes. The Toff is the nickname given to Richard Rollison, a playboy crime solver in England. Not a cop. Not a private investigator. Kind of like Knight Rider without the car.
But in The Toff Proceeds he’s looking to take a weekend off to play tennis with pals William and Mary Crossfield at their estate in the country. However, that changes as William is called away to a meeting by his uncle Arnold Crossfield regarding the Crossfield combine of companies, leaving a hole in cricket team for which William was to play. Rollison also happens to be a top notch cricket player as well, and so Mary volunteers him to play in her brother’s place.
And then things take an even more unexpected turn. Another player fails to show up, and when Rollison inquires at his house, he finds the man stabbed and collapsed inside. A woman going by the name Iris Brent is found outside. But before Rollison can find out what’s going on, a pale-faced thug and two henchmen abduct Ms. Brent and the mystery is on.
It’s perfect pulp. The mystery is far too complicated to hold together once it’s revealed, but by that point you don’t care. It’s also quite devoid of emotion or atmosphere, unless you think of English society as atmosphere. The Toff does this, and then the Toff does that, and then the Toff proceeds. All throughout the Toff maintains an aloofness that is nearly perfect.
Creasey did keep me guessing as to what was going on though. The overly complicated plot isn’t fully revealed until the end, so there’s continued suspense on the whodunnit part all the way through. Little suspense that the Toff will figure it all out that.
Title: The Toff Proceeds
Author: John Creasey
Series: The Toff; 7
Imprint / publisher: Lancer
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 176 p.
Publication date: 1967 (originally 1941)
Subject: Toff (Fictitious character) — Fiction
Subject: Private investigators — England — Fiction
LC classification: PR6005.R517
