Cecil John Charles Street

>It was a lovely hot summer afternoon and old Mrs. Lavant had retired as usual in the hammock in her garden for her customary after-luncheon nap. There her great-niece Annabel finds her when she calls with a friend David Wiston, but to her horror the old lady appears to be dead, a fact which David, a budding doctor, duly confirms. Yet within an hour the corpse is sitting up and taking notice. When is a corpse not a corpse? >That is the question for you to answer, with the accomplished assistance of Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard and his friend Desmond Merrion.

Sixth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley >At the brooding, isolated house of Samuel Barton on Tollard Ridge, the owner of the house is found murdered. The obvious culprit appears to be his wayward son Arthur, and the local police have no difficulty in presenting a case against him and bringing him to trial. Meanwhile Samuel Barton's ward and heiress Kitty plans to use the money to break free of her uninspiring marriage with a local farmer and live a little. A second suspicious death leads to the arrival of the celebrated criminologist Dr. Priestley, who soon unearths an elaborate plot of murder.

Forty-fifth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. > The author, whose mysterious death is investigated in this book, was a certain Mr. Nigel Ebbfleet, who after years of writing without success produced a “best seller” and then astonished his publisher by announcing that he had quite decided never to write another line and was retiring to a country cottage to live a quiet life. His subsequent murder might lead some readers to suspect the publisher; but Jimmy Waghorn and Dr. Priestley, proof against such hasty assumptions, reached a very curious conclusion.

The Murders in Praed Street is a 1928 detective novel by John Rhode, a pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It features the fourth appearance of the armchair detective Doctor Lancelot Priestley. >Seldom has Scotland Yard been faced by a more baffling problem than that presented by the series of terrible outrages known as the Praed Street Murders, which spread horror and fear throughout every home in London. >Not the least singular feature of these crimes was that in each case the victim was a middle-aged man, some petty shop-keeper or clerk, leading a quiet and unobtrusive life. Hence there appeared to be no motive for the murders. >And yet these crimes were clearly planned by a single fiendish brain, for in each case the destined victim had received the same sinister intimation of his impending doom…

>The people of Dovebury were proud of their ancient church and, when its tower was damaged in a gale and funds were needed for its restoration, they inevitably decided to hold a bazaar. And who should act as Treasurer? In many ways they would have preferred Mr. Tilworth, a retired accountant who had recently come to live there; but then Mr. Headcorn had discharged that function for so many years.... >The bazaar was a success, but Mr. Tilworth had some doubts about the accounts and mentioned this to Mr. Headcorn who invited him to come round that evening and discuss the matter over a drink. Mr. Headcorn drank his usual light ale but for his guest he opened a bottle of wine - and two glasses silenced Mr. Tidworth for ever.... >It seemed a very simple case to the local police; but for Sootland Yard's Jimmy Waghorn, aided by the Sage of Westbourne Terrace, the investigation produced some curious and starting results....

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.

> In a ‘Saffronshire’ (read: Cornwall) seaside resort, a doctor is called to his patient’s house, and finds him dying in a bedroom full of gas. The housekeeper, Mrs. Brannel, has disappeared, taking with her £50 and the car. An open-and-shut case, apparently. But Jimmy Waghorn has his doubts – and the biggest mystery is why farmer Kynance’s pigs were poisoned.

Last in the long-running series featuring amateur detective Dr Launcelot Priestley. Freddie Hapton, a young testpilot, finds himself one winter's day making a forced landing by parachute amid the snow-covered hills of Benshire. Spending the night in a deserted shepherds' hut, he notices a green metal box secured by two padlocks. The significance of this box in the affairs of the nearby Greystoke family becomes the problem that Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn has to unravel when one of them is murdered mysteriously. How did it fit in with the theft of the silver bust of the Empress Eugenie that was an heirloom of the elder branch of the Greystoke family? Jimmy, in between visits to the North Country, is helped by a few hints from his friend Dr. Priestley.

Third in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley Sir Noel Ellerby comes to visit Dr. Priestley to complain that his Lincolnshire manor house has been broken into, but nothing apparently taken. Soon afterwards Ellerby is found dead at his home in front of an empty safe. Priestley eventually discovers that his killing is linked to a racket concerning the distribution of contraband saccharine, but nearly loses his life in the process to the ruthless murderer.

Thirteenth in the mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion. > The little village of Tolsham was surprised one day by a most extraordinary looking stranger. Clearly a foreigner, he had a full black beard, wore the oddest of old clothes, and from his mouth protruded a huge cigar. ‘Must be one of them Bolsheviks’ remarked the villagers, and left it at that. But with the stranger’s disappearance came the discovery of a dismembered corpse in the milk-churn of a local dairy. Had the mysterious ‘foreigner’ anything to do with the crime? Inspector Arnold of the Yard and his friend Desmond Merrion think so at any rate. Soon they are up to their necks in the most baffling case of the century, a mystery that is remarkable for its intricacy and really clever detection.

>The Ariadne Inn catered for two classes: the “regulars” who absorbed their pints of beer in the public-bar, and passing motorists who congregated in the cocktail-bar and the garden. Soon after six o’clock on a warm evening in August, the place was packed with bibulous humanity, and in the general bustle it was not immediately apparent that one of the guests at a table in the twilit garden was not asleep but dead… >There were mysterious elements in the cause of his death and a still greater mystery in his previous activities, for who was this Mr. Warstock and why had he come to the Ariadne? >The ingenious John Rhode has not only set a complicated puzzle for Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn and the Sage of Westbourne Terrace, Doctor Lancelot Priestley, but has also shown the use to which a large country house can be put and the possible danger of belonging to a London Club…

Fiftieth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. >In the Norfolk Broads one of identical twin brothers drowns in a boating trip tragedy. From the second the survivor plans to step quietly into the shoes (and wealth) of his unfortunate sibling, events take a decidedly dangerous turn. >It emerges that far from being the respectable citizen everyone thought, his brother was involved in some extremely dubious enterprises. The survivor attempts to hide himself away at a rest home where his brother had stayed the previous year - but this proves unsuccessful in shielding him from danger. >The suspicions of the doctor who runs the home give Superintendent Waghorn the first clue he needs to begin to unravel the case – as well as providing the `two graphs' of the title – and with Priestley's help he manages to track the criminal.

When a party of schoolboys assembles for a moth-watching party, the occasion turns out to be fatal not only to the moths. What is the explanation of the ruthless and deliberate killing of a normal, cheerful schoolboy whom everyone liked? Inspector Ferriby realises that in this unusual puzzle he will need the help of Scotland Yard, and he is additionally pleased when Desmond Merrion turns up to assist in the investigation. Before long the police find themselves with a further mystery on their hands, when the body of a woman is found floating in the river. All the clues in the possession of the police only seem to deepen the mystery. The investigation is about to be abandoned when a third death, more dramatic and startling even than the others, opens the way to a surprising solution.

Near the small settlement of Filmerham, the station-master discovers a body lying close to the tracks not far from the station. Due to a wartime shortage of police personnel, the retired Superintendent Hanslet is called back into action. By recalling an earlier deduction made by Priestley in a similar case, he is able to work towards a solution.

Thirty-sixth in the mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion. It was Esther Kesgrave, maid in the service of the Botesdale family for many years, who found the second Mrs. Botesdale lying dead at the foot of the basement stairs. She made the discovery on her return from a visit to her master, the dead woman's husband, who was a certified lunatic confined in a mental home. The tragedy seems to have been accidental, but as the lady was alone when she fell police investigations and an inquest are inevitable and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard is called in. The Inspector's keen eye for detail soon picks out some interesting and highly suspicious facts connected with a tea-caddy and the incalculable lack of fingerprints on the china set out on a tea-tray. Ably aided and abetted by his old friend Desmond Merrion Inspector Arnold is soon immersed in as baffling a murder case as any in his career.

Nineteenth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. >The motor-cruiser Alondra had come over the harbour bar at Riddinghithe with the last of the flood and dropped anchor for the night. The next morning a boatman putting out to do a bit of fishing noticed the body of a man lying across the cabin top. He put his helm down and steered closer to investigate. And then he saw that the man’s head was shattered.… The police are baffled, as they cannot discover anything about the dead man beyond his name and the fact that he was a keen yachtsman. It remains for Dr. Priestley to bring about an entirely unexpected dénouement....

Seventh in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley. UK title The Davidson Case. Sir Hector Davidson is in charge of Davidson’s Ltd, a manufacturer of chemical apparatus. To the dismay of his relatives and employees, he has more interest in his personal profit than in keeping the family business thriving. Along with harassing his secretary with inappropriate advances and firing the chief designer, he seems to be in the process of stealing valuable designs for his personal gain. Sir Hector heads one evening to his country home, Bratton Grange, with a heavy case full of valuable plans and machine prototypes. When his chauffeur fails to arrive at the train station, he's forced to accept a lift in the back of a local man's van. But when the van arrives at Bratton Grange, Sir Hector has been stabbed and the case has vanished. Enter Dr Priestley… >>[From Classic Mystery]