The Terror

Dr Palfrey #22

by John Creasey

The story of the near-panic that strikes the world's governments when an unidentified object carrying a super-powerful nuclear war-head approaches earth, and a series of other war aimed events that prove to be the work of a megalomaniac with ambitions for world power.

Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1968

About the author

AKA Gordon Ashe, M E Cooke, Norman Deane, Robert Caine Frazer, Patrick Gill, Michael Halliday, Charles Hogarth, Brian Hope, Colin Hughes, Kyle Hunt, Margaret Lisle, Abel Mann, Peter Manton, J.J. Marric, Richard Martin, Rodney Mattheson, Anthony Morton, Jeremy York, Henry St. John Cooper and Margaret Cooke.

John Creasey (September 17, 1908 - June 9, 1973) was born in Southfields, Surrey, England and died in New Hall, Bodenham, Salisbury Wiltshire, England. He was the seventh of nine children in a working class home. He became an English author of crime thrillers, published in excess of 600 books under 20+ different pseudonyms. He invented many famous characters who would appear in a whole series of novels. Probably the most famous of these is Gideon of Scotland Yard, the basis for the television program Gideon's Way but others include Department Z, Dr. Palfrey, The Toff, Inspector Roger West, and The Baron (which was also made into a television series). In 1962, Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pen name J. J. Marric. And in 1969 he was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

Reviews

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ještě jsem dojel posledního Creaseyho, čistě abych zjistil, jestli ve svém katastrofickém příběhu opět vyhladí většinu lidstva. A ne, tohle je vlastně docela krotký román, ve kterém se moc nestane a celé se to točí kolem strachu z jaderného útoku kombinovaného z útokem z vesmíru. Hele, taky jsem se v tom ztratil. Co jsem pochopil, je to, že se dá udělat falešná atomová bomba, která má všechny efekty skutečné, ale bez ničivých účinků… a že za vším zlem stojí organizace bojující za mír. Nic nového.
Slabota.

[Christopher Storey · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is not often that Creasey wrote a real lemon,( indeed I cannot think of another although I have not read any other Dr Palfrey books ) but this is it. The dialogue is strictly for the under fives, ( most of the characters sound as if they have come from a Dan Dare comic and are cardboard cutouts) , the whole book seems to be written in successive cliches, and the plot is both predictable and unexciting . Give this one a miss

[Michael P.]

John Creasey has a bad habit of blowing up houses in his books. It is ridiculous. I have a rule: read the book and if no house blows up, great. If a house blows up, abandon the book. A house and garage blow up on pages 84-5, two for the price of one. I abandoned the book.

[Delores Alger · Rating 4 out of 5]

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