John Rhode

The next time you visit Olympia, take a good look around and see if you think it would be possible to murder someone in the middle of the crowd there without being seen.

Mystery at Olympia

The “astute and sharp-spoken” crime-solving professor must find out if a missing man got away with murder (The New York Times). After some initial suspicion, the death of Ernest Venner’s wealthy uncle was attributed to natural causes—a simple infection. But Dr. Lancelot Priestley and his crime-solving companions find it intriguing, to say the least, that as soon as Venner collected his much-needed inheritance, he vanished into the wind. Digging into the disappearance, though, will lead Priestley to some dangerous places, in this suspenseful Golden Age mystery featuring the scientifically minded sleuth . . .

The Venner Crime

The Paddington Mystery

The next time you visit Olympia, take a good look around and see if you think it would be possible to murder someone in the middle of the crowd there without being seen... The new Comet was fully expected to be the sensation of the annual Motor Show at Olympia. Suddenly, in the middle of the dense crowd of eager spectators, an elderly man lurched forward and collapsed in a dead faint. But Nahum Pershore had not fainted. He was dead, and it was his death that was to provide the real sensation of the show. A post-mortem revealed no visible wound, no serious organic disorder, no evidence of poison. Doctors and detectives were equally bafﬂed, and the more they investigated, the more insoluble the puzzle became. Even Dr Lancelot Priestley's unrivalled powers of deduction were struggling to solve this case.

Murder at Derivale, first published in 1958, is book no. 66 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. Murder at Derivale one of the final books in the Priestley series, has Inspector Jimmy Waghorn (assisted by the now elderly Dr. Priestley) investigating the death by poisoning of a man found dead in a truck parked in his neighbor's yard. Diamond smuggling and realistic police procedures are also featured.

Murder at Derivale

A shady operator is targeted for death and needs help from a professor with an “uncanny ability to ferret out the truth” (The New York Times). An expert in alternative medicine is creating a clinic in Cranbury Hall that promises to cure fatigue, and Arnold Gilroy is happy to invest in this promising moneymaking venture. Unfortunately, his brother Oliver has just finished a stint in prison for fraud—and has weaseled his way into running Cranbury Hall while pursuing some nefarious business on the side. Before long, he’s been grazed by a bullet—and Dr. Lancelot Priestley will have to step in before the killer strikes again, with more success this time, in this Golden Age British mystery.

Peril at Cranbury Hall

“One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great sense of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, well-knit process of reasoning, and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact.”—Dorothy Sayers on John Rhode From the jacket: For three years the man had lived in the little Lilac cottage on the Squire’s estate, yet apparently no one in that peaceful village knew a thing about him. The only significant clue that Superintendent Hanslet and Jimmy Waghorn found was the five pound bank note that he received on the day he died. The minute they told Dr. Priestley about it he jumped to the bait and set forth on a trail that picked up such divergent clues as dope fiends, the dismantled engine of a motor mower, and the rear view of an odd man on a bicycle. When the village good-for-nothing was found dead on the estate, it seemed to complicate the affair even more. But for Dr. Priestley it actually simplified things. He brings the case to a smashing conclusion that will leave the reader gasping at the ingenuity of the murders and the unfailing astuteness of this famous criminologist. “Convincingly worked out.”—The Saturday Review

Murder at Lilac Cottage

An “extremely clever” mystery about a doctor who appears to have fatally injected himself and a dinner party devoted to detection (The Saturday Review). Dr. Richard Mawsley was a happy man and a careful man. So how and why did the Harley Street specialist inject himself with strychnine while in his locked office? There’s no hint that anyone else was at the scene, and the guests at Dr. Lancelot Priestley’s weekly dinner party, including two from Scotland Yard, are determined to figure out what happened. Did he suddenly become despondent, or pick up the wrong bottle? This band of crime-solvers is puzzled indeed, and Priestley is left to wonder if there’s another possibility beyond accident, murder, or suicide . . . “A scientist who turns to crime puzzles for recreation . . . The more difficult they are, the better he likes them.” —The New York Times

Death in Harley Street

Proceed with Caution

Death on the Lawn

Cecil John Charles Street

Poison for 1

“The murders are most ingeniously planned and executed, and even Dr. Priestley is put to a severe test before the story is ended.” —The New York Times Constable Frean had an unpleasant sensation that he was not, as he seemed to be, patrolling a respectable London suburb, but was back at the Front in the year 1918, enduring a particularly vicious bombardment. Crash! With a roar like a bursting shell the roof of a nearby house blew off. Heading a rescue party, the constable found part of the house in ruins, and the owner, Sir Andrew Wiggenhall, missing. Eventually, his remains, or part of them, were discovered in the garden. Thus passed the Chairman of the Board of Porslin Ltd. Some months later another member of the same board of directors died in mysterious circumstances. Still another followed shortly. The reason for these apparently unrelated mysteries puzzled the police and intrigued Dr. Priestley. After a series of clever deductions, and as a result of clues which led far back into the past, he unearthed the secret of the Death that sat on the Board of Directors.

Death Sits on the Board

Dorothy L. Sayers

Helen Simpson

The Detection Club

Freeman Wills Crofts

Francis Iles

A unique anthology for crime aficionados – seven of the world’s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation.

The Anatomy of Murder

Martin Edwards

Anthony Berkeley

Gladys Mitchell

Agatha Christie

Milward Kennedy

With “a touch of genius,” this round-robin mystery follow-up to The Floating Admiral features famous detectives including Lord Peter Wimsey (The Times Literary Supplement). Following the success of The Floating Admiral, in which certain members of the Detection Club—including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and G. K. Chesterton—collaborated on a whodunit, six writers pooled their talents to create another coauthored mystery. This time the premise had an added twist: authors would swap their detective characters, allowing for some extremely entertaining parodies of one another’s sleuths. When a ruthless British newspaper tycoon is shot dead in his home, the high-level suspects include the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard, casting doubt on the impartiality of a formal police investigation. As a solution, the home secretary brings in four brilliant detectives to solve the murder: Mrs. Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Roger Sheringham. Featuring a preface by inaugural Detection Club member Agatha Christie, this playful tour de force gathers together half a dozen Golden Age Mystery masters: John Rhode, Helen Simpson, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Milward Kennedy.

Ask a Policeman

Detection Club

Frances Iles

Freeman Wills Croft

A unique anthology for crime aficionados - seven of the world's most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation. A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier's mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand... Seven of the world's greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world's most spine-tingling mysteries - all of them astonishingly TRUE. This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction.

A unique anthology for crime aficionados seven of the world s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation. A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier s mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand Seven of the world s greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world s most spine-tingling mysteries all of them astonishingly TRUE. This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction."

This classic crime novel by six different authors is introduced by Martin Edwards, archivist of the Detection Club, and includes a never-before-published Preface by Agatha Christie, 'Detective Writers in England', in which she discusses her approach to writing and her fellow writers in the Detection Club.

Constance Emilie Kent confessed, in April, 1865, to the murder of her brother, Francis Saville Kent, on June 29, 1860, and was tried at the Wiltshire assizes at Salisbury, July 21, 1865. The book includes an account of the corner's inquest at Road, July 2, 1860, and the magisterial examinations of Constance Kent at Road, July 27, 1860, and of Elizabeth Gough at Trowbridge, October 1-4, 1860.

John Rhode

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