Wednesday, the 3rd of March, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!
Today my pick was actually inspired by a post I read last week, or rather the post reminded me that I had some of the author’s books on my TBR of sorts and had left them unread for so long. The author is John Creasey and the post was a Friday’s Forgotten Books post which WordPress suggested last week when I was reading another Friday’s Forgotten books post (find the post by Aubrey at Happiness is a Warm Book here). John Creasey was a truly prolific English author who wrote over 600 books under 28 different pseudonyms (Enid Blyton is the only other who I know with over that number–more than 700). Among his best known characters are Commander George Gideon, Dr Palfrey, Inspector Roger West, and the Baron (John Mannering). He also wrote some Sexton Blake books.
My parents had a few of his books (again ones I hadn’t really read), including some Baron books and Inspector West. Some years ago I did pick up I think one of the Baron ones, and while I can’t remember how I liked it, I think I didn’t not like it because I did pick up a few of the others to read later. And today’s pick Parcels for Inspector West is from this list.
This is the 19th of the Inspector West books (there are 50 in all). The book has a Christmas setting, or pre-Christmas to be more specific. It is some time before Christmas and parcels are being sorted at River Way sorting office. Amidst all this, a murder takes place, of a postman (the alternative title of the book is, in fact Death of a Postman). Inspector West investigates. In the midst of it all is the masterkey to London’s post vans. This one is described more I think as a police procedural than a mystery but sounds interesting all the same.
While I can’t recall how I liked his other book, I know I did want to give some others a try, and this with its Christmas setting sounds like it will be an interesting one. Goodreads reviews are fairly mixed, but some do describe it as a whodunit, which I enjoy generally. The book was first published in 1956. The Christmas setting should be fun as well.
Have you read this one? Or any others by John Creasey? Which ones and how did you find them? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!
Book info and cover image from Goodreads (here) (the blurb behind my copy is the same); author info from Wikipedia (here)
Find Lisa’s pick, The Alice Network by Kate Quinn here
Literary Potpourri 
I have not heard of this author before until now! Thank you for sharing 🙂 It does sound interesting and maybe a good book to read closer to Christmas since it has a Christmas setting 😉
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My parents had a few of his, that’s how I came across him. But it should be interesting, and a quick one since it’s a pretty short book
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