Ransom Town
By Roderic Jeffries
The letter was addressed merely to the Fortrow Gazette.
The contents of the letter were explicit: ‘The Organization For Social Equality needs money to help it fight for justice for the underprivileged. We’ll set a small fire to prove we’re in business, and then the price is a million pounds. Pay up fast or the fires get bigger, and after each one the bill doubles.’
At first there was doubt that the threat was genuine, but then the fires began and it was clear that Fortrow was being held to ransom. The police worked as hard as they could but made no progress and public alarm grew. Even Detective Inspector Fusil’s superiors began to doubt that he could be left, as he demanded, to go on desperately trying to identify the arsonist who might at any time precipitate an appalling tragedy…
Roderic Jeffries was born in London in 1926 and was educated at Harrow View House Preparatory School and the Department of Navigation, University of Southampton. In 1943, he joined the New Zealand Shipping Company as an apprentice and sailed to Australia and New Zealand, but later transferred to the Union Castle Company in order to visit a different part of the world. He returned to England in 1949 where he was admitted to the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn and read for the Bar at the same time as he began to write. He was called to the Bar in 1953, and after one year’s pupilage, practiced law for a few terms during which time there to write full time. His first book, a sea story for juveniles, was published in 1950.
