Dr. Priestley's Quest: A Dr. Priestley Detective Story

Dr. Priestley #2

by John Rhode

Dr. Priestley's Quest, first published in 1926, is the second book in the Dr. Priestley detective story series. Author John Rhode, a pen name of Cecil Street (1884-1964), was a prolific writer of mostly detective novels, publishing more than 140 books between 1924 and 1961. From the dustjacket: “Perhaps the greatest achievement of Dr. Priestley's career as a criminologist was his masterly solution of the strange mystery which is related in this volume. The curious problem presented by the case of the Heatherdale brothers was well-suited for the exercise of his peculiar powers of logical reasoning. From the first dramatic disclosure of Mr. Gerald Heatherdale, the narrative proceeds by a series of startling events to a conclusion which few reader will be able to foretell.”

Genres: Mystery

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1926

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

[Subodh Garg · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Ok, so I finished Dr. Priestley's Quest written by John Rhode. To summarise my thoughts, this was a very engaging read from start to finish. A warm cozy book that makes you feel comfortable. The perfect armchair read. I completed it in a single sitting and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

So, with my general thoughts out of the way, let's review this book as we usually do:

The Detective and the Method of Detection: 5/5
The Criminal: 5/5
The Method of Crime: 4/5

The Detective of this story is once again Dr. Priestley, a retired Mathematician, who devotes his time to postulating mathematic theories and occasionally to matters of criminal interference. In this novel, the second one of the series, we find the Professor with a new assistant; Mr. Howard from the last book. Howard, much like the previous book, makes a pretty Watson to that of Dr. Priestley's Holmes. Dr. Priestley is the same as ever, using his precise logical mind to chase the facts right back to the criminal. Nothing much has changed about the Professor, neither in his appearance nor in his relationships. The only fresh information we get about him is that he is occassionally asked by his colleagues and acqaintances regarding problematic issues, especially those that can't be taken to the police.

For the first time in a Dr. Priestley Novel, the criminal is just as methodical and cunning as the good professor himself. The Criminal and the Professor are very similar in their character and thinking. The Criminal faces a problem, and comes upon a solution by using his logical faculties. The only difference between Dr. Priestley and the Criminal is in the problem they face; and the legality of its solution. By the end of the story, the Criminal has earned the Professor's respect and in doing so endeared himself in the eyes of the readers.

There is not much more that I can say without giving away crucial plot points. Hence, this review comes to its natural conclusion. To summarise once again, this book is phenomenal. It will please anyone looking for a slice of Golden Age Mystery.

Can't wait to read more!!!

[Jay Maxfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is the second crime fiction book by John Rhode and was published by Geoffrey Bles in September 1926.
The story revolves around Doctor Priestley's investigations using facts and logic concerning the death of Austin Heatherdale who according to the police was robbed and murdered (probably by accident) by a gang of thugs on a lonely lane. The case is brought to Dr Priestley's attention by Gerald Heatherdale - the brother of Austin - who believe's that his brother was deliberately murdered and not as an accidental consequence of the robbery as he has found a written threat in his deceased brother's possessions. Gerald fears for his own safety when he also receives a similar threat & this prompts Lancelot Priestley to take the case more seriously. The story is narrated by Harold Merefield (pronounced Merryfield) - who lives in the same house as Priestley and is soon to be his son-in-law. Harold also assists Priestley with the donkey work taking a very subservient role and irritatingly panders to every condescending remark given to him by his future father-in-law and never rebels like his counterpart John Watson. Inspector Hanslett appears in the story mostly in the second half of the book - very much in the role of - the not so clever inspector from Scotland Yard. The major flaw with the story is that there are only three suspects to the crime, Mr. Withers (solicitor) Captain Murchison (beneficiary of Will but negatively upon the deaths of Austin & Gerald) and Mrs Milton (Housekeeper to Gerald Heatherdale) - there is a couple of vague allusions to a distant cousin Dr Heathergale of New Zealand who is also a beneficiary if both brothers die - but this suspect is really not worked upon (alluded to enough) to make him a real suspect. With only three suspects the discerning classical crime reader should be able to work out who is the villain very quickly - which seriously distracts from the books enjoyment.
I would give this book 6 out of 10 as it does have a few good ideas but it does show that the author was very new to this genre and the story doesn't shine in anyway.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second Priestley mystery was a significant improvement on the first and showed promise. It was an intricate and sufficiently confusing case. I did guess the explanation, but not until the last chapter before the grand reveal.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic perplexing second detective novel with the retired professor of mathematics. From the classic Detection Club mould where everything is available to the reader to work it out before the sleuth.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wealthy Austin Heatherdale has been killed, by whom, why or where is unknown. A year later just like his brother, rich Gerald receives a threatening note. This sends him back to Dr. Priestley for help, aided by Harold Merefield.
Enjoyable historical mystery
Originally published in 1926

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read three of the Dr. Priestley novels, and this is the worst of the three. This is partly because Priestly and Harold Merefield are in it from page one. In the later books Priestly is featured only for part of the novel, and Herold not at all. Priestly is a mathematician who insists only on facts, but is very annoying in his manner. Harold acts as his assistant, making assumptions and being overly-pandering to the professor. Am glad I didn't read this first because I would never have read another.

[Teresa N.]

The story is good and well written as expected of a John Rhode mystery.

However, ISBN 978-1515469209 is a print on demand edition that contain a multitude of punctuation errors and spacing issues which create annoying distractions while reading this particular version. Numerous times on each page a sentence ends abruptly only to resume on the next line indented as if it is a new paragraph. The names of two characters, Merefield and Heatherdale are randomly hyphenated throughout the book. "To me" is repeatedly rendered "tome", which is nonsensical in the context of the sentence. There were a couple of random ellipsis towards the end and some random numbers that may have served in the original text as page numbers (ex. "87" on page 43 which ends chapter 5). On page 119 there are a couple of lines of text that are bizarrely spaced: "d i r e c t i o n o f E a s t K e n n e t t ? "

The book itself is decent quality, the paper is good and the binding seems reasonably durable, but the text was formatted in a shoddy fashion for printing, and this affects the reading experience. I would like the publisher, whoever it was, to better prepare and format text files before sending to an on-demand printer. I doubt on-demand printers have the budget for proof reading. I missed also having some information about the original publication date and author, as is usually included at the front of a book published in the standard way.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another "scientific" detective; okay story, but each discovery is belabored and conversations quite repetitive.