Tue 9 Oct 2018
JOHN CREASEY – Model for the Toff. Richard Rollinson (The Toff) #36. Pyramid R-1134, paperback; 1st US printing, February 1965. Originally published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, hardcover, 1957.
The first third of this 1950s Toff thriller is quite readable, but even then I was wondering if there was enough to the story to fill an entire book. It turned out that I was right. There wasn’t.
Richard Rollinson, that upper class gent who dabbles in crime solving much as a dashing adventurer would, is hired by a famous dress designer who has been plagued by models quitting on him and others refusing to work for him. Someone is obviously trying to frighten them away, and succeeding. The question is, who? And why?
The person responsible is vicious. Some of the models have had acid thrown on them. Others have been attacked by dogs. Even the Toff’s life is in danger, once he has taken the job. There are only a limited number of suspects, however, and any suspense that the story may have is mitigated severely by the fact that the stakes are so low.
I’ve enjoyed other books in the series, but this one, not so much.
October 9th, 2018 at 3:36 pm
Never could get into Creasey, and I admire your perseverance with this.
If I were to try him, did he do anything you’d recommend?
October 9th, 2018 at 4:11 pm
That’s a good question. I’ve found Creasey to be very hit or miss, and even the hits are not good enough to rave about them.
Some people like the Gideon books he wrote as J. J. Marric but I’ve never been impressed by any. (Keep in mind, though, that police procedurals are far from my favorite genres.)
Other opinions welcome!
October 9th, 2018 at 4:46 pm
I once knew someone who read and reread the Gideon books for many years.
October 9th, 2018 at 5:35 pm
Was that you, Randy?
October 9th, 2018 at 6:20 pm
No, I read them all once and a couple more than once, but never managed to reread all of them.
October 9th, 2018 at 6:47 pm
I remember the situation so well because the guy who kept reading them also kept borrowing my copies!
October 9th, 2018 at 7:02 pm
If the Toff novels KNIFE FOR THE TOFF, DOUBLE FOR THE TOFF (aka THE TOFF ON THE FARM), THE TOFF IN NEW YORK, and THE TOFF AND THE RUNAWAY BRIDE (the latter dramatized in a BBC radio serial) are both good for those not already fans, the former because it gets the Toff out of his usual environs.
I grant Creasey is very much a matter of taste, and his style is different enough from the American model as to throw some readers off, but for many of us The Toff, the Baron, Patrick Dawlish, Roger West, Dr. Palfrey and the rest are part of a world we enjoy returning to regularly.
Yes, he was too prolific, sometimes careless, and can vary greatly from book to book, but he can also be great fun.
October 9th, 2018 at 8:40 pm
Even if Model wasn’t one that knocked my socks off, there were paragraphs written so descriptively well that I could only wish he’d been able to continue in the same vein the whole book through.
Alas no. For every passage that resonated like that with me, there was another section you could tell was too quickly written.
October 9th, 2018 at 11:16 pm
I liked Gideon’s Day enough to watch the movie, which I also liked, but not enough to read the rest of the series. So little time, so many books!
October 10th, 2018 at 5:45 pm
The Gideon television series, GIDEON’s WAY with John Gregson, is well worth catching. Several episodes are available to watch on YouTube, and the Patrick Dawlish novel THE CRIME HATERS was adapted as the last episode of BORIS KARLOFF’S THRILLER moved to Canada.
John Bentley starred in two TOFF films in the late forties, and of course there was the ITC BARON series with Steve Forrest as a very different John Mannering from Creasey’s cracksman turned antiquities dealer.
THE TOFF AND THE RUNAWAY BRIDE was adapted as a serial on BBC radio and there were several series of Roger West with Patrick Allen on radio (both available on YouTube and elsewhere).