Gideon and the Young Toughs and Other Stories by John Creasey (1908-1973) writing as J. J. Marric (Crippen & Landru, 2022) is most welcome to this George Gideon fan. I discovered the series in the late 1960s and raced through them, seizing the new ones off the library shelves and tracking down the earlier ones to fill in the back stories of the series characters. I did not know that Creasey wrote short stories about this stalwart of Scotland Yard, in addition to the novels released between 1955 and 1976. (And yes, I know someone continued the series after Creasey’s all too early death but I didn’t like them so I don’t count them.) Crippen & Landru have collected a baker’s dozen of Gideon short pieces, published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine between 1969 and 1975.
As Martin Edwards points out in his introduction, the format of the short story prevents Gideon from juggling multiple cases, one of the charms of the more realistic novels. But the solutions are just as ingenious. I was especially delighted by the nefarious methods of the shoplifting gang, the one that was methodically stripping the stores along Oxford Street of thousands of pounds in merchandise.
Also missing from the short stories are the usual bits about Gideon’s home life, his garden and the children of whom he was so proud. But his paternal side is on display in several stories that feature young men gone astray or on the verge of doing so. He had a knack for seeing through frightened bluster and was able to steer them in a new direction rather than sending them to jail to become hardened criminals. Of course he also recognized those that kindness would not help and he let the system take care of them.
If new stories about the legendary Commander Gideon aren’t enticement enough, an introduction by crime fiction historian Martin Edwards, an afterword by Creasey’s son, and an essay by author and critic Francis M. Nevins make this volume a mandatory read for the legions of Gideon fans.