John Creasey MBE (1908–1973) was an English author of crime, romance, and western novels. Creasey was a human writing machine, producing more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms. Mostly he’s known for his crime fiction, of which there are over 400 books. He was educated in London and from 1923 to 1935 he took various clerical jobs and sales jobs while trying to establish himself as a writer. Creasey launched his publishing career by winning a competition called The Cracksman Award, sponsored by Harrap in the UK and Lippincott in the US.
In 1953, John Creasey founded the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) in the UK. The CWA New Blood Dagger for debut books by previously unpublished writers is awarded in his memory. This award was known originally as the John Creasey Memorial Dagger. In 1962 Creasey won an Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America for best novel for Gideon’s Fire, seventh title in the Gideon series which he wrote under the pseudonym J. J. Marric. In 1969 he received the MWA’s Grand Master Award. The television series Gideon’s Way was based on his series, as well as the John Ford movie Gideon of Scotland Yard (1968), also known by its British title Gideon’s Day. After Creasey’s death the Gideon series was continued for another five volumes by William Vivian Butler.
Gideon’s Day (Harper & Brothers, 1955) establishes the character of Detective Superintendent George Gideon and his colleagues while describing a day at Scotland Yard. The story opens with Gideon arriving at the Yard in a fury and dressing down a Detective Sergeant who has been taking bribes to look the other way while a gang sells drugs on his watch. Minutes after the sergeant has been put on administrative leave, he’s killed by a hit-and-run driver. No one believes it’s an accident, and Gideon is determined to pin it on the leader of the drug ring.
In addition to this new case, an attempt to rob a mail van is thwarted. It’s the latest in a string of mail robberies. Gideon and his men are frustrated by their lack of progress and the robbers’ prowess. The murder of a small shop owner, a robbery in a house while a dinner party is underway downstairs, and a possible warehouse arson add to his caseload.
Creasey developed a formula of sorts, a highly readable one that makes his books concise and to the point. None of the 21 Gideon books are more than 200 pages or so but they each contain a solid police procedural with crisp character delineation and consistently unfolding action. This series shows its age in the missing references to technology and contemporary forensics. Nonetheless, it’s still a fine source of summer binge reading, especially for readers caught up on their favorite British detective series.
Biographical information from the John Creasey website and Wikipedia.