The most prolific mystery writer ever, John Creasey eventually achieved as much fame for the quality of his work as he did for its sheer quantity. Beginning in 1932 he wrote over five hundred books about heroes as diverse as Gordon Craigie, the Toff, the Baron, Roger West, Patrick Dawlish, Palfrey, and Gideon of Scotland Yard.

Creasey, the seventh of nine children, was born 17 September 1908 to Ruth and Joseph Creasey. His father was a coach maker in Surrey, England. Creasey claimed that his ambition to become a writer stemmed from the age of ten when a schoolmaster, after reading a writing exercise in which the boy had recounted an imaginary conversation between Marshal Foch and Kaiser Wilhelm, told him he could make a living out of writing. The family was poor, and Creasey was forced to leave school at the age of fourteen and support himself with a variety...