A slightly illegal neighborhood service was what some people considered the black market. After all, when luxuries are in short supply, it's only natural for astute businessmen to find a way of turning a dishonest dollar. But the black market meant more to the men of Scotland Yard, and when the Toff's Aunt Mattie bought a shortcut to death from her friendly neighborhood crook, Rollison found himself mixed in with retail profiteering -- and wholesale murder!words : 52616THE TOFF GOES ON In this, the third story of that gallivanting, unorthodox and daring enemy of crookdom, the Toff, Mr. Creasey takes for his main scene the rolling downs of Hampshire. He starts with the Toff—or the Hon. Richard Rollison, man-about-town—dining with a ballerina of renown whom he finds frightened by a man who enters the restaurant of one of London’s most exclusive hotels. Thus for the first time the Toff meets the Russian, Pallukin, to whom he takes a natural dislike which is fully reciprocated. The ballerina’s fear soon arouses the inquisitiveness of the Toff, and so does a strange panic that visited a peaceful Sussex village. The Toff, investigator, pursues the trail of Pallukin with all the spirit, humour, action, and effectiveness that characterize both the Toff and Creasey’s writing. Grand stuff, from start to finish, packed with action and surprises, and possessing a climax that could not be bettered.

The Toff Goes to Market (Toff, #8)

John Creasey

Macmillan Library Reference

Chivers Press ; G.K. Hall

Macmillan Reference USA

G K Hall & Co

Nightingale collection, Large print ed, Thorndike, ME, 1997

Bath, England, Thorndike, Me., USA, 1997

United States, United States of America

Thorndike, Me., USA, England, 1997

Large Print, PS, 1997

Its a time of shortage and rationing. The Honourable Richard Rollison (aka The Toff) is in the army, but gets permission to visit his aunt, Lady Matilda Wirrington, who is supposedly on her death bed. Had she died, things would have been different, but as it was a recovery led from one thing to the other and The Toff found himself involved in an investigation of the black market profiteering by dishonest businessmen in order to earn huge amounts of money out of peoples needs in times of inadequate supply. This, though, went beyond that and wholesale murder raised its ugly head as both The Toff and Scotland Yard battle it out with those involved.
A 1942 crime thriller novel by the British writer John Creasey. It was the eighth in his long-running featuring the gentleman amateur detective The Toff. It was one of a number of novels produced in the era that featured the booming wartime black market as a major plotline. It has been republished on a number of occasions.
-Wikipedia

Scotland yard investigates a slightly illegal neighborhood service--the black market where luxuries, as well as death, could be found

2025-03-11