The Toff Takes Shares by John Creasey (Hodder, 1965)

A local bookshop obtained a lot of vintage paperbacks by John Creasey, and all in near-mint condition!

 

An unexpected female passenger introduces the Toff to one of the most complicated and violent cases of his career.  The shares of a large London store are crashing, and amidst gripping excitement the Toff turns stockbroker to find out why.

And no wonder the shares in this "large London store" are crashing!  There are many and varied problems behind the scenes--including blackmail, embezzlement, kidnapping and murder.  In addition to all this--the book being originally published in the post-War austerity year of 1948--the owner is up to his neck in the black market.  How will the Toff manage to sort out the victims from the villains? 

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1959)

Found in a charity shop on a shelf full of Christie paperbacks:

THE mysterious man in the brown suit is a link between a fatal accident at a London Underground station and the body of a strangled woman found at a Member of Parliament's lonely country house.

Enterprising Anne Beddingfeld, back by a newspaper magnate, follows clues leading to South Africa, and there finds herself plunged into a highly dangerous Secret Service adventure.

First published early in Agatha Christie's career in 1924, this book was written while she was still experimenting with different genres.  It is a thriller rather than a classic whodunnit--and her heroine is an enterprising amateur caught in the middle of things rather than a professional detective.  Readers of Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series will find this a rather different kind of read!

Rogue Roman by Lance Horner (Pan, 1970)

Found on a dusty shelf in the Green Shed:

 

Imperial Rome--centre of the world--throbbing with the white heat of violence, bloodshed and uninhibited sexuality...

Bought as an actor, kidnapped by pirates, sold as a gladiator, young Cleon's beauty and flagrant masculinity made every woman--harlots and Vestal Virgins alike--desire him.

And passion drives Cleon to help destroy a Caesar who combined the vices of his predecessors with his own special perversions--the Emperor Nero.

Soft-core sixties smut, with a plot revolving around a hero whose main attribute is... the size of his, um, main attribute:

Contux took a firmer grip on the cloth and yanked.  There was a ripping sound and the hand came away with the front of Cleon's tunic clutched in the swollen fingers...  "I take it back.  He's more than a man - he's a true stallion.  He was shouting the words and waving the cloth for all to see.

(Page 125) 

Why am I suddenly reminded of Biggus Dickus?

The Red Planet by Charles Chilton (Pan, 1960)

 

Blast off! to new heights of adventure and excitement

with JET MORGAN and the crewmen of the spaceship DISCOVERY, made famous in Charles Chilton's thrill-packed BBC radio series. 

In this book, Jet leads the first fleet of rocketships to reach across space from the Moon to the 'Red Planet', Mars.  But right from the beginning the expedition was ill-omened.  Uncanny happenings were to test their courage to breaking point, both on the long space flight and on the hostile planet itself.

Nerve-racking sequel to JOURNEY INTO SPACE

"Jet Morgan"!  Now there's a name that really belongs in a mid-century space opera.  And what better adventure for a mid-century space hero than to battle nefarious aliens on Mars?

Jet made his debut on BBC radio in 1953.  The Red Planet is a novelization of his second serial (also on radio) broadcast in 1954.   Both serials were immensely popular in their day--pulling a bigger audience in their timeslots than television.   They're available to download at Old Time Radio Download for anyone who's interested.

Fool the Toff by John Creasey (Hodder & Stoughton, 1954)

 

Was "Love's Matrimonial Agency" a racket shop?  Jane Abbott met her husband there and he vanished--her money with him.  The Toff went to see Miss Love and found a most remarkable woman.  Then there was Jeremiah Matt, an equally remarkable man.  In fact the Toff met many new acquaintances and one of them made a fool of him.  Others... died.

This blurb is taken from the half-title page, as the back cover is filled with an advertisement:

 

Every once in a while I stumble across one of these on a secondhand bookstall.

As for the Toff--as the title of this book says, he is indeed fooled!  In the end, all the mysteries contained therein are  solved by his "man", Jolly--which is not what you expect of a story with a crime-fighting gentleman hero!

My Wicked, Wicked Ways by Errol Flynn (Pan, 1961)

Another find from the Lifeline Bookfair!

 

A celebrity and rake confesses--fifty years of high-pressure living recalled by a rebel who became a legend in his lifetime.

a wild youth in New Guinea and the South Seas

--circling the globe on a wilder chase to London, arriving broke and unabashed at the Berkeley Hotel

--for two decades a cinema idol--to millions he was a symbol of masculine virility while his own sex life became an endless orgy

--fighting the celebrated rape case that changed the course of his life.

Errol Flynn has never pulled a punch in his life, nor has he done so in this book--a rogue male's blistering self-portrait.

One of the first tell-all autobiographies--or was it?  Rumour has it that besides bedding countless women, Flynn occasionally, er, "crossed swords" with male actors.  True or not, this book comes across as a remarkably frank memoir by a man who lived a wild, hedonistic life.  In the end one is left wondering what Flynn left out of his book, and how many of the stories about him are true!

The Corpse Came C.O.D. by Jimmy Starr (J. Coker and Co., 1951)

Found at one of the Lifeline Bookfairs, complete with shabby dust-jacket:

Hector Ross, studio dress designer, disappears following  a tiff with glamorous movie star, Mona Harrison.  A few days later, Ross's body, dumped into a packing case, is delivered C.O.D. to Mona's house.  How her boyfriend Joe Medford, ace crime reporter, sets about the task of finding the murderer, provides a story packed with thrills and suspense.

What do you call a fictional character who likes to name-drop real people's names?

George Burns and Gracie Allen were across the way.  They waved at Mona, who returned the greeting.  Edgar Bergen, without Charlie McCarthy, sat in a corner booth.

(Page 43)

 As I strolled in, I noticed Fred Astaire over in a corner with his producer, David Hempstead.  Carole Landis was at the bar, telling stories of her army tour in Africa... Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard, still in studio make-up, were gabbing about clothes in a far booth.

(Page 113)

I looked around the room.  Janet Gaynor and Adrian, the famous stylist, were sitting in the next booth.

(Page 115)

Jimmy Starr (his real name, evidently!) was a screenwriter and Hollywood gossip columnist in the 1930s and 1940s, so this novel really is a case of "writing what you know".   It was made into a movie starring George Brent and Joan Blondell in 1947.