The Murders in Praed Street

Dr. Priestley #4

by John Rhode

The story revolves around the mysterious murder of Mr. James Tovey, a well-known greengrocer, followed by another death in the same area. The narrative introduces various characters, including Mr. Tovey’s daughter Ivy, and the herbalist Mr. Elmer Ludgrove, who may play significant roles in the unfolding mystery. At the start of the novel, the setting is introduced through the dreary and neglected Praed Street, which serves as a backdrop for the unfolding drama. Mr. Tovey is depicted as a hardworking fruit merchant who enjoys a quiet life with his family until his daughter Ivy's friendship with young Ted Copperdock raises concerns. When Tovey is called to St. Martha's Hospital to identify an accident victim, he tragically becomes a victim himself, found murdered under mysterious circumstances. The narrative quickly draws the reader into the investigation, exploring the interconnections between the characters and the motivations behind the crimes, hinting that the bustling street hides darker secrets waiting to be uncovered.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Classics

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

AKA Miles Burton, Cecil Waye, Cecil J.C. Street, I.O., F.O.O..
Cecil John Charles Street, MC, OBE, (1884 - January 1965), known as CJC Street and John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British army. During the course of World War I, he became a propagandist for MI7, in which role he held the rank of Major. After the armistice, he alternated between Dublin and London during the Irish War of Independence as Information Officer for Dublin Castle, working closely with Lionel Curtis. He later earned his living as a prolific writer of detective novels.

He produced two long series of novels; one under the name of John Rhode featuring the forensic scientist Dr Priestley, and another under the name of Miles Burton featuring the investigator Desmond Merrion. Under the name Cecil Waye, Street produced four novels: The Figure of Eight; The End of the Chase; The Prime Minister's Pencil; and Murder at Monk's Barn. The Dr. Priestley novels were among the first after Sherlock Holmes to feature scientific detection of crime, such as analysing the mud on a suspect's shoes. Desmond Merrion is an amateur detective who works with Scotland Yard's Inspector Arnold.

Critic and author Julian Symons places this author as a prominent member of the "Humdrum" school of detective fiction. "Most of them came late to writing fiction, and few had much talent for it. They had some skill in constructing puzzles, nothing more, and ironically they fulfilled much better than S. S. Van Dine his dictum that the detective story properly belonged in the category of riddles or crossword puzzles. Most of the Humdrums were British, and among the best known of them were Major John Street.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Andrea Magistris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inutile negarlo, stiamo parlando di una specie di cugino, parente alla lontana, mezzo sosia o gemello separato alla nascita di Sherlock Holmes, scegliete voi.
Il protagonista, le vicende, la trama e tutto l'impianto narrativo ricalcano da vicino quanto fatto precedentemente da Conan Doyle: se ne colgono ispirazione, eventuali omaggi e influsso diretto, ma devo ammettere che nonostante il plagio sia dietro l'angolo, il romanzo mi è piaciuto molto.
L'investigazione si muove seguendo gli stilemi del giallo deduttivo, tra indizi appena accennati che solo il geniale Professor Lancelot Priestley (il nostro Holmes sotto mentite spoglie) riesce a cogliere, false piste, personaggi sinistri e sfuggenti e ricerche guidate dalla pura logica. Niente di nuovo sotto al sole, ma nel complesso funziona tutto abbastanza bene e soprattutto l'atmosfera è quella giusta, tra i vicoli fumosi e pungenti di una Londra periferica con alcune sortite extraurbane ben congegnate e funzionali alla trama.
Un'opera puramente derivativa che compensa la mancanza di originalità con una struttura solida, una narrazione coinvolgente e un personaggio (vorrei vedere, è Sherlock Holmes) che comunque rimane gradevolmente impresso.
Forse non quattro stelle pienissime, ma assolutamente consigliato agli amanti del genere.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early serial killer novel, published in 1928, is very readable and has some plot twists which have been much copied since. I found it an exciting read and enjoyed the range of characters, including a greengrocer, a herbalist and a minor poet. Rhode gets in some sarcastic humour at times and there are atmospheric descriptions of the area of London where the murders take place. There are also some intriguing Golden Age murder methods! Unfortunately, though, much as I enjoyed it overall, there are problems with the plot.

The main issue is that there just aren't enough suspects to keep readers guessing, making the identity of the killer obvious early on. This means the main questions are not whodunit, but why and how he did it, and how he will be caught. Also, the great Dr Priestley seems to be off his form, as he fails to spot some obvious clues and to see through a disguise which doesn't sound particularly convincing. And it's hard to believe that no one else spots the motive, as surely someone would have realised what links all the victims much earlier on.

[Sneha Pathak (reader_girl_reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written almost a hundred years ago, this is quite an enjoyable yarn. this is despite the fact that for a contemporary reader, atleast, guessing the identity of the murderer won't be difficult. Even then, i enjoyed the book much more than I had thought I would. This is the fourth John Rhode book that I have read and thought to myself that it's not a bad book at all given how many of the older mysteries revived recently have failed to hit it off with me. Recommended.

[Calum Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

B–:

Much like many of Rhode's other early efforts, this suffers from a major lack of suspects, to the extent where the "who" is very obvious early on. The "why" takes a while to surface, but I'm not sure how the motive couldn't have been worked out much earlier by some of the victims. Many of the clues are also signposted a bit too clearly for my liking.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I was expecting better.

More thriller than puzzler; this is one of the earliest serial-killer novels (see M. Edwards on Agatha Christie’s ‘ABC Murders’, w/ n. ad loc.). But it is a serial killer with a rational, not a psychological motive. Not bad, but the book is more (and somewhat dated) entertainment than anything more substantial. I suspect that this early effort, however, is not fully representative of the Dr. Priestly series, and that I will have to find a better entry point than this one afforded.

[David Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Would’ve been four but for the slight let down at the denouement, until which it was bubbling along nicely. There are enough clues for the half-awake reader to solve the crime by about half way through but this detail didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of a well told mystery. I chose to read this Dr Priestley puzzle because I spent 6 years as a medical student at St Mary’s Hospital (for some reason appearing here as St Martha’s although the author didn’t disguise the name of the large station next door) and Praed Street is entirely familiar to me. As the author writes: Praed Street watches with indifference the thronging crowds which pass along, and they in turn take little heed of the uninviting thoroughfare through which their journey leads them. When I was there in the late 1970s it was thoroughly disreputable, boasting a sordid variety of Sex Shops, a soft porn cinema, an assortment of indolent medical students and “the biggest VD clinic in Europe”. It’s a delicious coincidence that the same year this book was published, in a third floor hospital laboratory directly overlooking the “frankly lamentable” street, a certain Dr Fleming was staring at an contaminated agar plate, scratching his head and wondering at what he was observing. He’d certainly have been distracted by a series of ingenious murders that briefly caught the attention of the wider public and set the local community to wondering if they would all be killed in their beds. It turned out that there was a method in the seemingly random killings and the police soon realised that one character had links to the victims. But so does Dr Priestley and if he hadn’t been so consumed by a book he was writing may have realised sooner that he too was on the list. Also I did feel that one of the character’s assertions that a man in his fifties with ‘only a few more years to live in any case, so that his death will be no great blow to anybody’ was a bit of a low blow to me.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first to die in Praed Street is greengrocer James Tovey. But there will be more. Inspector Whyland investigates but has no idea to why or by whom. Eventually Dr Priestley enters the narrative.
An entertaining historical mystery though the reader knows the motive.

Originally Published 1928

[Puzzle Doctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent early Dr Priestley outing. Full review at classicmystery.blog

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started off really liking this book. It felt like a refreshing change of pace from the last Golden Age mystery I read, which was a country house mystery filled with witty people who never had to worry about money (classic 1930's escapism, which is it's own thing). I appreciated that this one was all about working class people with grounded working class problems...

But that wasn't the fashion for 1920's mysteries either. A little more than 1/2 way through the book we meet Dr. Priestly, the detective, and the over the top mythic flavor which had been hinted at early in the book really took off. It's not at all bad, but it did take me out of it a bit.

They mystery was interesting, because the narrator gave the reader a BIG hint which was not visible to the detectives in the first half of the book. Wondering how that shoe was going to drop was a lot of fun (and it DID play out in a 'fair' way, by which I mean it made a sort of sense). The identity of the killer was something i had suspected, on and off, throughout the book, but it played out in a satisfying way.

It will probably take a little while before I seek out another Dr. Priestly mystery, but I'll probably come back to him at some point. When I'm in the mood for something bigger than life...

[Karmakosmik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primo bassotto pubblicato dalla mitica Polillo editore, ora sotto la cura della Rusconi libri, che racconta di una intrigata sequenza di omicidi che avvengono tutti nella medesima strada di Londra. La prima parte del romanzo è tutta dedicata alla descrizione delle vittime e dei loro omicidi, e di come la polizia non riesca a cavarne un ragno dal buco, mentre la parte successiva vede entrare in scena il prof. Lancelot Priesley, una specie di Sherlock Holmes anziano, che ha il compito di risolvere questo incredibile enigma. Peccato che ad una prima parte, forse un pochino lenta in ritmo, tuttavia discreta, ne segue un'altra piuttosto deludente, dove il tutto viene rivelato senza troppe impalcature, lanciando poi la tirata verso un finale citofonatissimo che anche un bambino avrebbe intuito.

[Doug Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1920s, several men over age 50 are murdered in the same London neighborhood, some via stabbing and others by poisoning. The murders are announced in advance, with each victim receiving a numbered counter before being killed.

After the death toll reaches six, retired mathematician Dr. Priestley is consulted on the case. Can he figure out what the victims have in common and what the killer's motive might be?

This 1928 mystery is supposed to be one of the earliest serial killer novels. I found it engaging and suspenseful.

[Dawn Tyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took some getting through. The set up was protracted and a bit laboured and the final denouement a bit predictable. The idea of a criminal with a conscience was well done and the characters well drawn. Good sense of place too with the excursion to Corfe Castle contrasting nicely with metropolitan London.

[Alessandro Boriani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettura assai piacevole. Il colpevole non è forse così nascosto ma ciò che rende interessante il libro è la costruzione dei delitti, l’ambiente, i personaggi e lo sviluppo della trama, con la parte nella brughiera davvero inquietante

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read!

John Rhode, I my opinion, is a excellent writer. . His books are not of the action packed of today, but have excellent character development and plot definition. This book is a very good example of both. Definitely a favorite writer for me

[Daniel R. Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well plotted, but perhaps too many hints early on. The character studies of the victims seemed the most interesting and involving aspects of the novel. The lengthy explanation by the murderer at the end is typical of the period, but seems somewhat leaden now.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The slow build-up of the early victims is well done (and allows Rhode to drop in the motive) but in t his early novel Dr. Priestly is too inhuman and persnickety. Also, there is no suspense to the ending, since we know the series hero won't be eliminated!

[William E. Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever

Except for the suspense toward the end of the book. The reader knows that the good doctor is not going to die.

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty obvious whodunit in this one but given how few characters there were and how many of them got eliminated the who wasn't really the point. Some of the how was a bit farfetched.

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book to be 'okay'. The plot plods a bit and wanders more than I like. The plot is, also, somewhat simplistic.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to find more Cecil Street/John Rhode books. Thoroughly enjoyable mystery. A light dusting of The Count of Monte Cristo.

[Martina Sartor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il Bassotto n. 1: finalmente, dopo anni, l'ho recuperato e letto. Ingegnoso, davvero molto, molto ingegnoso. A dire il vero ho avuto sospetti sul colpevole abbastanza presto e anche su un'altra cosa fondamentale per la soluzione del caso. Il movente invece mi si è chiarito di colpo un attimo prima che venisse esposto nel libro.
Ma, anche se avevo sospetti abbastanza certi, è stato avvincente seguire le indagini e la ricostruzione di un caso che sembrava assolutamente impossibile. Anzi direi che è uno dei pochi casi di giallo la cui lettura è avvincente indipendentemente dalla scoperta del colpevole. Infatti i personaggi sono molto ben caratterizzati e appassionanti essi stessi e la Londra di Praed Street curiosa e tutta da scoprire.
Un unico rimpianto: non aver letto questo libro quando è uscito, primo numero della collana. Chissà, forse con qualche lettura gialla in meno nel mio bagaglio la soluzione sarebbe stata una sorpresa assoluta anche per me.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: the murderer seems to be targeting shop owners; Inspector Whyland searches with a fine-toothed comb.