UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · FICTION · PHYSICIANS
Cecil John Charles Street
Also known as: John Rhode, Miles Burton
Cecil John Charles Street was a British army officer and a prolific writer of detective stories. He authored more than 140 novels. John Street used multiple pen names under which he produced multiple long series of novels: one under the name of John Rhode, the majority featuring the academic Dr. Priestley; another under the name of Miles Burton, the majority featuring the retired naval officer Desmond Merrion; and a third under the name Cecil Waye.
Most acclaimed
Situation Vacant
Thirty-fourth in the mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion. >Green was seriously put out. His daughter Iris had left home at half-past four to fetch her handbag, which she had left at Mrs. Whyttington's where she did part-time secretarial work, and here it was past six and she had not yet returned. Who was to get his tea, he'd like to know? But Iris would never get him a meal again, nor give reluctant help behind the counter in her father's chemist shop, for Iris was dead. Her body is found the next day floating in a sluice not far from her employer's house. It seems that in the October dusk she must have lost her footing on the narrow planking which bridged the sluice; and "accidental death" is the official verdict at the inquest. But when three months later Iris's successor as secretary to Mrs. Whyttington is found dead in most suspicious circumstances, and once again the situation becomes vacant, things begin to take on rather a different complexion and Scotland Yard is called in. It needs all Inspector Arnold's talent for patient plodding inquiry, assisted by the lively imagination and brilliant powers of deduction of his friend Desmond Merrion to solve a mystery that must surely be one of the most ingenious that Miles Burton has ever evolved for our entertainment.
Ask A Policeman
Lord Comstock is a barbarous newspaper tycoon with enemies in high places. His murder in the study of his country house poses a dilemma for the Home Secretary. In the hours before his death, Lord Comstock’s visitors included the government Chief Whip, an Archbishop, and the Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Yard. Suspicion falls upon them all and threatens the impartiality of any police investigation. Abandoning protocol, the Home Secretary invites four famous detectives to solve the case: Mrs Adela Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Mr Roger Sheringham. All are different, all are plausible, all are on their own – and none of them can ask a policeman... To produce this classic whodunit, the Detection Club adopted a completely new approach: Milward Kennedy proposed the title, John Rhode plotted the murder and provided the suspects, and four of their contemporaries were asked to lend their well-known detectives to the task of providing solutions to the crime. But there was to be another twist: the authors would swap detectives and use the characters in their sections of the book. Thus Gladys Mitchell and Helen Simpson swapped Mrs Bradley and Sir John Saumarez, and Dorothy Sayers and Anthony Berkeley swapped Lord Peter Wimsey and Roger Sheringham, enabling the authors to indulge in skilful and sly parodies of each other. The contributors are: John Rhode, Helen Simpson, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Milward Kennedy.
Murder at Monk's Barn
Burden, who had served in the war, and had considerable experience of death in its violent forms, took a pace forward. He saw at once that Mr. Wynter was beyond mortal aid. Gregory Wynter is shot dead through the window of his dressing room. There is no apparent motive for the crime, and it seems impossible for the murderer to have escaped before the police arrive. The dead man's brother, Austin, enlists the help of Christopher and Vivienne Perrins, a brother-and-sister team of private investigators. In this classic puzzler, the Perrins piece together the complex relationships within the Wynter household and beyond. What they discover leads surprisingly to romance, not to mention the unravelling of an "impossible" murder which also involves a box of poisoned chocolates. Murder at Monks Barn was originally published in 1931.