John Creasey MBE (1908–1973) was an English author of crime, romance, and western novels, who wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms. Mostly he’s known for his crime fiction, though, 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 started 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 The CWA New Blood Dagger is awarded in his memory, for first books by previously unpublished writers. This award was known previously as the John Creasey Memorial Dagger. In 1962 Creasey won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best novel for Gideon’s Fire, part of 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. The Baron was a 1960s TV series based on another series starring Steve Forrest.
Of the dozen or so series he developed, the Department Z series was one written under the name John Creasey, with about 30 stories of British counterespionage published between 1933 and 1957. Gordon Craigie, Chief of the British Counter Espionage, leads a group of skilled agents to protect the UK from the internal and external forces of evil.
The Mark of the Crescent (Melrose, 1935) is the fifth book in the series. It starts out at a country house cricket match, with lots of sports details that reminded me of the cricket match in Murder Must Advertise by Sayers. Craigie has sent Jim Kenyon to watch another agent suspected of double dealing. Department Z deliberately keeps the identities of the various agents secret, even from each other, so the others also set to watch are mostly unknown to him. While all are engrossed in the game, a murder is carried out under the noses of the crowd. Investigation of the murder leads to evidence of a wide-ranging drug ring and more mayhem.
I read all of the Gideon series and loved them, but I don’t remember reading the others by Creasey so I was happy to have the opportunity to look into Department Z. Typical of many thrillers written in the 1930s, this book has a master criminal with tentacles everywhere, even in law enforcement agencies. It’s a clear reaction to the general fear of Hitler’s growing power and his threat to European peace. There’s also a thread of xenophobia, which ages the story. The copyright information says it was revised in 1967 with no further details about the extent of the revision. Tightly plotted, well written, Creasey had found his stride by the time he wrote this one. Nicely done, if a little dated.
Biographical information from the John Creasey website and Wikipedia.