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Dr. Priestley #7
The House on Tollard Ridge: A Dr Priestley Detective Novel
‘Unusual and interesting’ New York Times‘Extremely well-done’ Times Literary Supplement‘A first-rate mystery story… John Rhode at his best’ Somerset Standard‘A well-written story’ Yorkshire PostGolden Age of Crime writer John Rhode’s sixth Dr Priestley detective novel, republished here for the first time in almost a centuryThis 2025 Spitfire Publishers ebook and paperback edition includes a complete bibliography of John Rhode’s Dr Priestley detective novels
The first queer death at the isolated mansion on Tollard Ridge is a brutal murder. Rich recluse, Samuel Barton, is found in his study with his skull caved in, his white hair and beard clotted with blood. Everyone in this quiet corner of the South Downs is stunned by the brutality of the whole affair, considering the general inoffensiveness of the victim’s life. However, his ward, Kitty, quickly gets on with the new life her large inheritance affords. A second death follows in a bedroom of the damned country house and appears even more inexplicable than the first. Superintendent King pursues the killer or killers, but it is only when Dr Lancelot Priestley and his private secretary Merefield take an interest that the truth behind the double murder begins to emerge...
About the Author
John Rhode was the pseudonym for the author Cecil Street, one of the best-selling and most popular British authors of the Golden Age of Crime. His most famous literary creation was Dr Lancelot Priestley, a forensic detective who featured in seventy-two novels written over forty years, solving many ingenious and misleading murders. Cecil Street was born in 1884 in Gibraltar to a military family. At sixteen he attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He served with distinction in the First World War and then in military intelligence before taking up writing full-time. He was a founding member of the Detection Club, the illustrious dining club of detective story writers, and created the famous ‘Eric the Skull’ used in the rituals of the organisation. He would write over 140 detective novels (writing also as Miles Burton and Cecil Waye) and died aged 80, in 1964.
Praise for John Rhode
‘A Dr Priestley story is always an event for armchair sleuths’ New York Times
‘Scientific investigator, Dr Priestley, is one of the most satisfactory successors to Sherlock Holmes’ New York Times
‘Dr Priestley, a scientist with a flair for criminal investigation’ New York Times
‘Standing in the front rank of those who write detective fiction’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Any murder planned by John Rhode is bound to be ingenious’ The Observer
‘One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great feeling of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, a well-knit process of reasoning and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact’ Dorothy L Sayers
The first queer death at the isolated mansion on Tollard Ridge is a brutal murder. Rich recluse, Samuel Barton, is found in his study with his skull caved in, his white hair and beard clotted with blood. Everyone in this quiet corner of the South Downs is stunned by the brutality of the whole affair, considering the general inoffensiveness of the victim’s life. However, his ward, Kitty, quickly gets on with the new life her large inheritance affords. A second death follows in a bedroom of the damned country house and appears even more inexplicable than the first. Superintendent King pursues the killer or killers, but it is only when Dr Lancelot Priestley and his private secretary Merefield take an interest that the truth behind the double murder begins to emerge...
About the Author
John Rhode was the pseudonym for the author Cecil Street, one of the best-selling and most popular British authors of the Golden Age of Crime. His most famous literary creation was Dr Lancelot Priestley, a forensic detective who featured in seventy-two novels written over forty years, solving many ingenious and misleading murders. Cecil Street was born in 1884 in Gibraltar to a military family. At sixteen he attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He served with distinction in the First World War and then in military intelligence before taking up writing full-time. He was a founding member of the Detection Club, the illustrious dining club of detective story writers, and created the famous ‘Eric the Skull’ used in the rituals of the organisation. He would write over 140 detective novels (writing also as Miles Burton and Cecil Waye) and died aged 80, in 1964.
Praise for John Rhode
‘A Dr Priestley story is always an event for armchair sleuths’ New York Times
‘Scientific investigator, Dr Priestley, is one of the most satisfactory successors to Sherlock Holmes’ New York Times
‘Dr Priestley, a scientist with a flair for criminal investigation’ New York Times
‘Standing in the front rank of those who write detective fiction’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Any murder planned by John Rhode is bound to be ingenious’ The Observer
‘One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great feeling of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, a well-knit process of reasoning and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact’ Dorothy L Sayers
247 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
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47 people want to read
About the author
John Rhode
136 books32 followersAKA 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 19, 2012
Cecil John Charles Street (1884-1965) wrote detective novels under a variety of pseudonyms, including John Rhode. The House on Tollard Ridge was published under this name in 1929.
It was one of many books to feature Dr Priestley, although he does not appear in this book until quite late. Dr Priestley, like R. Austin Freeman’s Dr Thorndyke, was a scientific detective. Dr Priestley is a slightly eccentric maverick scientist who has discovered that solving crimes can be a pleasant intellectual diversion. He is not motivated by money, nor by any passionate belief in justice. A crime is merely a puzzle to be solved.
In this case the crime is murder. A Mr Barton is found dead, his skull crushed by a blunt instrument. Mr Barton had been living in seclusion in a house on Tollard Ridge, a house a few miles from the village of Charlton Abbas and accessible only on foot. The town of Lenhaven is about fourteen miles distant. Since the death of his beloved wife he had been living there alone until a Mr and Mrs Hapgood had prevailed upon him to move in with them at Tilford Farm.
Mr Barton had been a wealthy man but quite a generous one and was generally so well liked that no-one can conceive that anyone could have a motive for murdering him. Mrs Hapgood has always referred to Mr Barton as Uncle Sam and regarded him almost as a father although in fact they were not related by blood.
Superintendent King is soon on the scene. Slowly a solution to the crime suggests itself to him. A son who has been disowned by Mr Barton, a young man given to drink and violence, seems to be a more and more obvious suspect. At least until Dr Priestley takes an interest in the case. What seemed like an open-and-shut case now proves to be far more complex than anyone could have imagined. The solution to the murder, and to another related murder, is as ingenious as anything you’re likely to come across in golden age detective fiction.
The solution is in fact so intricate as to appear slightly far-fetched but there’s no denying the skill with which the novel is plotted.
D Priestley is in the great tradition of amateur detectives but he has little time for leaps of intuition. He relies on solid facts, on mathematically precise reasoning, and on science. The solution to the murder is, fittingly, very much a product of science.
The style of the book is fairly austere. The novelist and critic Julian Symons classifies Street as belonging to the “humdrum” school of crime fiction, which is perhaps a little unfair. Street certainly treats crime in the same way that Dr Priestley does, as an intellectual puzzle, but it would be unjust to conclude that he was a dull writer. His style gets the job done and is not displeasing. The emphasis is very much on plot (and his plotting is certainly excellent) but Dr Priestley is an interesting character. Street is careful to take the obvious route by making him a grandiose larger-than-life character but he is clearly an exceptional man and his faith in the scientific approach is taken so far as to make him anything but a colourless character.
A very entertaining crime novel, and warmly recommended.
It was one of many books to feature Dr Priestley, although he does not appear in this book until quite late. Dr Priestley, like R. Austin Freeman’s Dr Thorndyke, was a scientific detective. Dr Priestley is a slightly eccentric maverick scientist who has discovered that solving crimes can be a pleasant intellectual diversion. He is not motivated by money, nor by any passionate belief in justice. A crime is merely a puzzle to be solved.
In this case the crime is murder. A Mr Barton is found dead, his skull crushed by a blunt instrument. Mr Barton had been living in seclusion in a house on Tollard Ridge, a house a few miles from the village of Charlton Abbas and accessible only on foot. The town of Lenhaven is about fourteen miles distant. Since the death of his beloved wife he had been living there alone until a Mr and Mrs Hapgood had prevailed upon him to move in with them at Tilford Farm.
Mr Barton had been a wealthy man but quite a generous one and was generally so well liked that no-one can conceive that anyone could have a motive for murdering him. Mrs Hapgood has always referred to Mr Barton as Uncle Sam and regarded him almost as a father although in fact they were not related by blood.
Superintendent King is soon on the scene. Slowly a solution to the crime suggests itself to him. A son who has been disowned by Mr Barton, a young man given to drink and violence, seems to be a more and more obvious suspect. At least until Dr Priestley takes an interest in the case. What seemed like an open-and-shut case now proves to be far more complex than anyone could have imagined. The solution to the murder, and to another related murder, is as ingenious as anything you’re likely to come across in golden age detective fiction.
The solution is in fact so intricate as to appear slightly far-fetched but there’s no denying the skill with which the novel is plotted.
D Priestley is in the great tradition of amateur detectives but he has little time for leaps of intuition. He relies on solid facts, on mathematically precise reasoning, and on science. The solution to the murder is, fittingly, very much a product of science.
The style of the book is fairly austere. The novelist and critic Julian Symons classifies Street as belonging to the “humdrum” school of crime fiction, which is perhaps a little unfair. Street certainly treats crime in the same way that Dr Priestley does, as an intellectual puzzle, but it would be unjust to conclude that he was a dull writer. His style gets the job done and is not displeasing. The emphasis is very much on plot (and his plotting is certainly excellent) but Dr Priestley is an interesting character. Street is careful to take the obvious route by making him a grandiose larger-than-life character but he is clearly an exceptional man and his faith in the scientific approach is taken so far as to make him anything but a colourless character.
A very entertaining crime novel, and warmly recommended.
February 1, 2026
Very good story
I liked the story for the details and the way we got to know a little bit about everybody. I thought I knew who the murderer was (correctly), but that never ruins a mystery for me. I like to see how the solution unfolds. That may be another reason why I liked this so much.
I liked the story for the details and the way we got to know a little bit about everybody. I thought I knew who the murderer was (correctly), but that never ruins a mystery for me. I like to see how the solution unfolds. That may be another reason why I liked this so much.
February 19, 2026
one of the greatest golden age mysteries
Fabulously plotted. So deep, intricate and deceptive it’s impossible to guess the ending. A fun read! I do recommend it.
Fabulously plotted. So deep, intricate and deceptive it’s impossible to guess the ending. A fun read! I do recommend it.
April 28, 2026
Ingenious mystery
For the age in which it was written this is an ingenious mystery. It takes a little while to figure out the murderer but it was not too difficult.
For the age in which it was written this is an ingenious mystery. It takes a little while to figure out the murderer but it was not too difficult.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews