Simon Iff is the protagonist of a series of short detective stories written by occultist Aleister Crowley. He is portrayed as a mystic, magician, world traveller, high society figure and great detective who is advanced in years but possesses a thorough insight into human psychology. According to publisher, editor and Crowley scholar William Breeze, the character is based on Crowley's idealised self-image of his own old age.[1]
The stories typically revolve around an apparently unsolvable crime, which is eventually untangled by Iff's magical and psychological logic. Crowley explained the method of crafting a Simon Iff story in simple terms:
Think of a situation as inexplicable as possible, then to stop up all the chinks with putty, and having satisfied myself that no explanation was possible, to make a further effort and find one.[2]