A Case for the Baron - John Creasey (as Anthony Morton)

Although little known today and undoubtedly somewhat old-fashioned in his style of writing, John Creasey was a prolific and popular crime fiction writer in his day, writing more than 600 novels under a variety of pseudonyms. Among several popular character series, the most famous being perhaps The Toff, Creasey published 62 books in The Baron series between 1937 and 1979 under the pen name Anthony Morton. The Baron is a kind of Arsène Lupin figure, a notorious jewel thief who became a kind of folk hero for stealing from the rich to help out the poor.

At the start of A Case for the Baron however, that life is all in the past, as John 'the Baron' Mannering adjusts to a quiet domestic life with his wife in their new cottage in the Hampshire countryside. He hasn't entirely left his secret life behind him of course. Superintendent Bristow of Scotland Yard knows a little of Mannering's past dealings with stolen jewels and even suspects he might be the notorious jewel thief, the Baron. With his experience and since he has gone straight, Mannering is a useful contact to have and occasionally called upon to help the police out when it comes to locating the whereabouts of stolen jewels.

While they would like a quiet start to their marriage, John and wife his Lorna, a famous portrait painter, are reluctant to accept the offer of a weekend stay with their aristocratic friends, Sir Robert and Lady Marion Ley, suspecting that there may be an ulterior motive behind the invitation. To make the decision even more complicated, Superintendent Bristow turns up at their cottage and proposes a job that Mannering might be interested in. Despite wishing to turn over a new leaf, the lure of precious stones remains, and Mannering can't help but consider helping out the police again. With the war going on, Mannering is a bit fed up being away from the action in a desk job as Intelligence Liaison Officer, so he decides to listen to what Bristow has to say. 

The Superintendent suspects that there is a major syndicate involved in a black market trade of jewels, smuggling precious stones out of the country, which is worrying in a time of war. It just so happens that the person Scotland Yard believe is the head of the smuggling operation is a guest of the Leys, the incredibly handsome businessman Marcus Shayne. They are sure he is their man but need to know the extent of his operation. Mannering agrees to help and, when they turn up at the Ley's mansion, soon realises that Shayne is also looking for his help. Although unaware of his secret identity as the Baron, he knows Mannering has expertise with jewellery and an ambiguous relationship with the law. Shayne is being threatened, but insists to Mannering that he is only doing what he can for the war effort, helping those in Europe caught up in the war.

The case is rather more complicated than that, with other criminal operations involved, drug smuggling, people with hidden identities and other's acting strangely. There is something strange about the situation when the son of the Leys announces his engagement to a young lady who looks a little bit older than she says she is, but Mannering can't quite put his finger on what it is. There is a lot of such circumspection and implication, not least because the Baron plays his cards very close to his chest, speaking in clipped sentences that avoid revealing anything, since he can't really trust anyone. It's perhaps the nature of the times, not just an old fashioned style of writing (which it is) and its fascination with the lives of the aristocracy, but also the question of never being sure who can be trusted during wartime, that a wrong word can endanger many lives, but also that nothing is simply black and white in such times.

Reading notes: A Case for the Baron by John Creasey writing as Anthony Morton, was first published in 1945. I read an old second hand Jay Books Suspense paperback edition, revised and reset in 1958, which presumably means that it has a new perspective on the war from when the book was originally published in '45. I say in the introduction that John Creasey was a popular writer in his time, but personally I admit that I had never heard of his work at all until I came across a stash of his books in Scrivener's bookshop in Buxton, and was intrigued enough by the amount of books written and by the cover of this one that I decided to pick up A Case for the Baron. I'll have to revisit and sample a few more.