Who Died At The Grange?

Author: Michael Halliday (John Creasey)
Price: £245
Publisher: Stanley Paul, London, UK
Edition: First edition
Publication Date: 1942
Format: Original cloth gilt. Dustwrapper
Condition: Very good plus in very good dustwrapper
Pages: 176

Description:
Binding nice and tight with very slight rubbing to the edges. Very minor age-spotting to the endpapers otherwise pages nice and clean. A very good plus copy overall in very good, slightly nicked and rubbed dustwrapper which is slightly faded to the spine. Dustwrapper correctly priced 8/6net. Very scarce in any form and a very nice copy in dustwrapper.

John Creasey: A Short Biography

John Creasey (1908–1973) was an extraordinarily prolific British author, best known for his contributions to the genres of crime, mystery, and adventure fiction. During his career, he wrote over 600 novels, often using different pseudonyms to differentiate between his various series and characters.

Key Facts About John Creasey:

• Prolific Output: Creasey was famous for his ability to produce a large volume of work quickly. He published dozens of novels per year at his peak, using more than 20 pseudonyms.
• Genres: Though best known for crime fiction, Creasey wrote in many genres, including Westerns, science fiction, and romance.

Major Series and Pseudonyms:

1. The Baron Series (as Anthony Morton):
   • One of Creasey’s most popular series, featuring John Mannering, a jewel thief turned crime-fighter. These books blended crime, adventure, and suspense.
2. Gideon of Scotland Yard (as J.J. Marric):
   • This series features Commander George Gideon, a senior officer at Scotland Yard. The books follow Gideon as he tackles major cases and criminal investigations in London.
3. Department Z (as John Creasey):
   • A spy thriller series featuring Department Z, a fictional British intelligence agency. The stories often involve international intrigue and espionage.
4. Inspector Roger West (as John Creasey):
   • This series follows Inspector Roger West, a Scotland Yard detective, known for being tough and effective. The series blends police procedural elements with classic mystery.
5. Patrick Dawlish (as Gordon Ashe):
   • Featuring Patrick Dawlish, a crime-fighter with military experience, this series combined action and adventure with mystery.
6. Dr. Palfrey (as John Creasey):
   • The Dr. Palfrey novels are science fiction thrillers that deal with threats to global security, such as biological warfare or political conspiracies. Dr. Palfrey leads an organization known as Z5, working to combat these threats.

Under the name Michael Halliday, Creasey wrote a number of crime novels, typically focused on suspense and intrigue, featuring everyday individuals who became entangled in solving mysteries or crimes. Creasey used the Halliday pseudonym to differentiate certain works from those he wrote under his other, more famous aliases. The crime fiction published under this name often had a more traditional mystery feel, focusing on amateur sleuths or protagonists with little formal experience in law enforcement, as opposed to the professional detectives or spy characters found in his other series.  Some of Creasey’s most notable works were also published under pseudonyms like J.J. Marric (for the Gideon series) and Gordon Ashe (for the Patrick Dawlish series), but as Michael Halliday, the focus was more on standalone mysteries and crime novels.

Legacy and Honours:

• Creasey was the founder of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) in 1953, a significant organization in the field of crime writing in the UK.
• In 1962, he won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his novel Gideon’s Fire (written under the pseudonym J.J. Marric).
• Despite his prolific nature, Creasey was respected for maintaining quality and storytelling skills across many different books and series.

Creasey’s influence on crime fiction was considerable, and many of his works were adapted for television and radio. His contribution to the genre remains widely recognised, and he is regarded as one of the most productive and successful crime writers of the 20th century.

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