Salute to Blackshirt
By Roderic Jeffries
Richard Verrell was enjoying his stay with the Freshmans.
When his host makes the mistake of boasting that his famous art collection is housed more securely than the Bank of England’s gold, Verrell makes it his mission to put that claim to the test.
So when he returns to London thoroughly beaten, he’s stunned to hear of a daring theft from the Freshman collection. How could anyone have succeeded where Blackshirt had failed? Returning to the house to investigate, he reaches the same conclusion as the police: a theft is impossible.
Before long, the stakes are raised, and with his usual disregard of the rules, he gets stuck right into the game…
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.