The Earl of Lithorn is a truly expert rider, who however someday will get thrown through his horse and breaks his neck. in the meantime, his daughter and heiress claims to have obvious a corpse within the library with its throat slit. Is she hallucinating, or is there a few deeper secret that still extends to the demise of the Earl? John Mannering (aka ‘The Baron’) investigates and is quickly embroiled in a case that includes not only homicide, yet espionage and intensely actual hazard to himself.

The writer: Born in Surrey, England, right into a bad kin as 7th of 9 little ones John Creasey attended a main university in Fulham, London, by way of The Sloane institution. He didn't keep on with his father as a trainer maker, yet pursued quite a few low-level careers as a clerk, in factories, and revenues. His ambition used to be to put in writing complete time and by way of 1935 he completed this, a few 3 years after the looks of his first crime novel ‘Seven occasions Seven’.

From the outset, he was once an astonishingly prolific and quick author, and it was once commonplace for him to have a rating, or extra, novels released in anyone yr. due to this, he ended up utilizing twenty 8 pseudonyms, either female and male, as soon as explaining that booksellers differently complained approximately him completely dominating the ‘C’ part in bookstores. They included:

Gordon Ashe, M E Cooke, Norman Deane, Robert Caine Frazer, Patrick Gill, Michael Halliday, Charles Hogarth, Brian desire, Colin Hughes, Kyle Hunt, Abel Mann, Peter Manton, JJ Marric, Richard Martin, Rodney Mattheson, Anthony Morton and Jeremy York.

As good as crime, he wrote westerns, delusion, historic fiction and standalone novels in lots of different genres. it's for crime, although, that he's most sensible identified, quite many of the detective ‘series’, together with Gideon of Scotland backyard, The Baron, The Toff, and Inspector Roger West, even supposing his different characters and sequence shouldn't be pushed aside as secondary, because the likes of division ‘Z’ and Dr. Palfrey have huge followings among readers, as do the various ‘one off’ titles, comparable to the historic novel ‘Masters of Bow highway’ concerning the founding of the trendy police strength.

With over books to his credits and around the world revenues forthcoming 100 million, and translations into over twenty-five languages, Creasey grew to become a global sensation.

He travelled broadly, selling his books in locations as a ways aside as Russia and Australia, and almost commuted among the united kingdom and united states, traveling in all a few 47 states.

As if this weren't sufficient, he additionally stood for Parliament a number of instances as a Liberal within the 1940’s and 50’s, and an self sufficient in the course of the 1960’s. In 1966, he based the ‘All celebration Alliance’, which promoted the assumption of presidency through a coalition of the simplest minds from around the political spectrum, and used to be additionally concerned with the nationwide discount rates move; United Europe; a number of street defense campaigns, and famine relief.

In 1953 Creasey based the British Crime Writers’ organization, which to this present day celebrates awesome crime writing. He received the Edgar Award from the secret Writers of the US for his novel ‘Gideon’s fireplace’ and in 1969 was once given the final word Grand grasp Award.

There were many television and massive reveal variations of his paintings, together with significant sequence targeted upon Gideon, The Baron, Roger West and others. His tales are as compelling at the present time as ever, with one of many significant components in his luck being the power to painting characters as residing – his undoubted expertise being to appreciate and discover effectively human behaviour.

John Creasey died at Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1973.