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Dr. Priestley #11
Tragedy on the Line
A body on the tracks and a pair of missing wills have Dr. Priestley puzzled . . .
Gervase Wickenden's estate is close to a railroad line--and that's where his mangled body is found after an unfortunate meeting with a train. The timing is a bit odd though, considering this happened only two days after Wickenden changed his will. And now, neither version of the will can be located . . .
The heirs ask Dr. Lancelot Priestley to look into the matter of the missing documents, but he soon stumbles on something else entirely: evidence that the train was not the actual cause of death. It's up to him to deduce the facts behind this fatal so-called accident, in a compelling British mystery by a Golden Age master.
"You can never go far wrong with a Dr. Priestley story." --The New York Times
Gervase Wickenden's estate is close to a railroad line--and that's where his mangled body is found after an unfortunate meeting with a train. The timing is a bit odd though, considering this happened only two days after Wickenden changed his will. And now, neither version of the will can be located . . .
The heirs ask Dr. Lancelot Priestley to look into the matter of the missing documents, but he soon stumbles on something else entirely: evidence that the train was not the actual cause of death. It's up to him to deduce the facts behind this fatal so-called accident, in a compelling British mystery by a Golden Age master.
"You can never go far wrong with a Dr. Priestley story." --The New York Times
- GenresMystery
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1931
About the author
John Rhode
140 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 21, 2023
Early Bird Book Deal | Not great, very flat and a lot of page space wasted with untenable theories | It's a pet peeve of mine when mysteries are padded out by page after page of the detective explaining their current--and obviously false--solution to the crime. It's just spinning my wheels, because there's no new information, just a dull recitation of what clues have already been provided, with conclusions that clearly don't add up. Hanslet makes a lot of assumptions based on what were even at the time becoming old-fashioned values, and the tropes of cozy mystery fiction ensured that his conjectures couldn't be correct. The wrapping up just makes it seem as though the entire investigation was a waste of everyone's time, including mine, and then it's just over. Unsatisfying.
April 2, 2021
Slight spoiler, maybe.
I don't love the genre so I may be biased, but there seem to be two kinds of mysteries. Ones where everything is spelled out a little too clearly, and this kind where the solution is right out of left field and the reader is left feeling that all characterisation was lies.
I don't love the genre so I may be biased, but there seem to be two kinds of mysteries. Ones where everything is spelled out a little too clearly, and this kind where the solution is right out of left field and the reader is left feeling that all characterisation was lies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 31, 2022
A decent and fun story, but not so great as a mystery. The entire conclusion was drawn from material introduced at the last minute by one of the characters and without that information the "mystery" would never of been solved. Good writing and enjoyable, but a bit of a let down...
July 11, 2017
Intriguing tale, with a strangely flat ending. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com
July 29, 2023
Feels impossible to solve, even the detectives don't claim that they did anything other than stumble upon the solution.
October 23, 2022
What those who do not appear to rate this work highly fail to notice is this comment from Dr Priestley :-
"We appear to be confronted with that very rare phenomenon, a carefully thought-out crime, perfectly executed. And, which is even more unusual, the criminal or criminals have not attempted to improve on their efforts after the event."
This is not therefore that rather overpraised phenomenon, an " impossible" crime, but a much rarer bird, the perfect crime, for which even the most conscientious of professionals or the most logical of amateurs cannot produce a solution.
For the reader and the writer this poses its own set of problems for the only solution, as here, is by confession. The author has, then, to so engage the reader by the characters and their activities that the real lack of clues is not the headache for the reader that it is for the detective.
Rhode succeeds in Tragedy on the Line not by producing an impossibly ingenious murder method but by introducing interesting characters, a cast of suspects whose motives are basically the same and a number of plausible but incorrect theories.He plays around with prejudices, portraying some strong, independent and unconventional women, while having Superintendent Hanslet opine :-
“It wasn’t a woman who killed him, sir,” he said. “A woman murders for revenge, or some motive like that, not for personal gain. Besides, she does it more or less on the spur of the moment, when she sees her opportunity. But in this case a most elaborate scheme must have been worked out, you can see that in every detail. Take the question of faking the apparent time of the murder, so that an alibi could be established. That’s no ordinary woman’s work, sir.”
There are a few other touches. Constable Streeter, tall and stiff-looking in his uniform, is surely the author, ( Major Cecil John Charles Street M.C.), and the supposedly real-life "Marchmont Case" is a reference to JS Fletcher's 1925 novel, the Bedford Row Mystery.
Most enjoyable and recommended.
"We appear to be confronted with that very rare phenomenon, a carefully thought-out crime, perfectly executed. And, which is even more unusual, the criminal or criminals have not attempted to improve on their efforts after the event."
This is not therefore that rather overpraised phenomenon, an " impossible" crime, but a much rarer bird, the perfect crime, for which even the most conscientious of professionals or the most logical of amateurs cannot produce a solution.
For the reader and the writer this poses its own set of problems for the only solution, as here, is by confession. The author has, then, to so engage the reader by the characters and their activities that the real lack of clues is not the headache for the reader that it is for the detective.
Rhode succeeds in Tragedy on the Line not by producing an impossibly ingenious murder method but by introducing interesting characters, a cast of suspects whose motives are basically the same and a number of plausible but incorrect theories.He plays around with prejudices, portraying some strong, independent and unconventional women, while having Superintendent Hanslet opine :-
“It wasn’t a woman who killed him, sir,” he said. “A woman murders for revenge, or some motive like that, not for personal gain. Besides, she does it more or less on the spur of the moment, when she sees her opportunity. But in this case a most elaborate scheme must have been worked out, you can see that in every detail. Take the question of faking the apparent time of the murder, so that an alibi could be established. That’s no ordinary woman’s work, sir.”
There are a few other touches. Constable Streeter, tall and stiff-looking in his uniform, is surely the author, ( Major Cecil John Charles Street M.C.), and the supposedly real-life "Marchmont Case" is a reference to JS Fletcher's 1925 novel, the Bedford Row Mystery.
Most enjoyable and recommended.
May 21, 2018
Very well written, both dialogue and characterization. But this has a fatal
fault for me. Both Dr. Priestly + the police gather evidence fairly well, but
they all fail and the murderer goes free. Then Rhode finishes with the
murderer incurring a fatal accident, but conveniently confessing to Dr. P
just before dying.
If you don't mind the murderer winning, this book is for you. By the way,
with a little more ingenuity, Dr. P could have given the police a tip with which
they could have solved the case. But the victim is wicked, so I think Rhode
wanted the murderer to succeed. And Rhode tries to shield all the innocent
people(who receive lots of money) from suspicion.
fault for me. Both Dr. Priestly + the police gather evidence fairly well, but
they all fail and the murderer goes free. Then Rhode finishes with the
murderer incurring a fatal accident, but conveniently confessing to Dr. P
just before dying.
If you don't mind the murderer winning, this book is for you. By the way,
with a little more ingenuity, Dr. P could have given the police a tip with which
they could have solved the case. But the victim is wicked, so I think Rhode
wanted the murderer to succeed. And Rhode tries to shield all the innocent
people(who receive lots of money) from suspicion.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews