Fri 13 Nov 2009
A Review by George Kelley: JEFFREY ASHFORD – A Sense of Loyalty.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
JEFFREY ASHFORD – A Sense of Loyalty. Walker, US, hardcover, 1984; paperback reprint, 1986. British edition: Collins Crime Club, hc, 1983.
Jeffrey Ashford is the author of the classic mystery The Burden of Proof, but his latest novel, A Sense of Loyalty, is a long way from that standard.
The Chairman of the Board of HI Motors announces that an industrial spy is leaking priceless information about HI’s new model. The company hires a private investigator named Inchman to conduct an investigation to find the spy.
Mike Sterling, head of the PR department, is Inchman’s prime suspect. Sterling tries to clear himself by conducting an investigation of his own, but everything gets muddled by Sterling’s loyalty to his sister’s happiness over the corporate code of ethics.
I found the pace much too slow and the family crises much too tiresome. There’s a flurry of action at the book’s conclusion, but too few surprises. Go read Ashford’s earlier fiction and forget about this latest piece of fluff.
November 14th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Jeffrey Ashford is a second generation mystery writer, real name Roderic (Graeme) Jefferies son of Graham Jeffries, better known as Bruce Graeme (and Peter Bourne) the creator of Richard Verrell, Blackshirt. As Roderic Graeme Ashford continued the Blackshirt series until 1966 in twenty volumes. He also wrote as Peter Alding, Graham Hastings, and Julian Roberts.
Between he and his father they wrote under ten names, the father writing five distinct Blackshirt (Blackshirt, Lord Blackshirt,the Son of Blackshirt, Sgt Sir Blackshirt, and Monsieur Blackshirt) series.
The Jeffrey Ashford books were by far the most critically successful works of either writer, though the Blackshirt series had a long run in England and Europe and is currently a Moonstone comic book project.
Blackshirt, for those of you who don’t know, is mystery writer Richard Verrell, by night the cracksman Blackshirt who wears a black silk formal shirt and a black mask in action. Like Jimmy Dale, The Gray Seal, a mysterious woman discovers his identity and blackmail’s him into fighting crime, leading, as with Frank Packard’s creation, to reform, romance, and marriage. Blackshirt ran from 1925 to 1966 and inspired the 1935 film Black Mask.
November 14th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Thanks for the additional information, David!
November 14th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Here’s some more information, mostly numbers, which are certainly impressive enough:
Bruce Jeffries, who died in 1982, wrote 87 mysteries as Bruce Graeme, 5 as David Graeme, and 2 each as by Peter Bourne, Fielding Hope and Jeffrey Montague.
Roderic Jeffries, his son, is still writing. Under his own name, 48 books through 2009; as Jeffrey Ashford, another 48 books through 2009. As Roderic Graeme, 21 books; as Peter Alding, 14 books; and as Graham Hastings, another 2 books.
This is a rough count only, using CRIME FICTION IV and some Internet sources, trying to avoid books published in the US under new titles.
These are not huge “Creasey” numbers, but I’m still impressed.
— Steve
November 14th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Blackshirt did fairly well here in the States, but nothing like his homegrown popularity. In the UK he was in a class with the Saint, the Toff, the Baron, and Norman Conquest.
For a very good history of the gentleman crook in British popular fiction, and a good look at the many faces and tangled legacy/history of Blackshirt look up W. Vivian Butler’s The Durable Desperados. It’s an entertaining read that follows the growth of the gentleman bandit in England from Robin Hood to Raffles, Edgar Wallace’s the Brigand, Ivor Novello’s the Rat, and then really takes off with the arrival of the Saint, Blackshirt, and the Norman Conquest. It certainly deserves to be reprinted and perhaps updated.
Butler continued Creasey’s Gideon and Toff series for a couple of books after JC’s death.
Colin Watson also touches on the gentleman crooks in his delightful study of between the war thrillers Snobbery With Violence, which is worth the price just for the delightful cartoons about the genre from the era he reproduces.