Cecil John Charles Street (1884-1964) was an amazingly productive author of Golden Age crime fiction, writing under multiple names. As John Rhode, he created a series of about 70 books with Dr. Lancelot Priestley, Inspector Hanslet, and Inspector Jimmy Waghorn, published between 1925 and 1961. He also wrote short stories, stand-alone novels, stage plays, and non-fiction under this pseudonym. As Cecil Waye, he wrote four novels about Christopher and Vivienne Perrin, private investigators in London. Under the name Miles Burton, he wrote about 60 novels between 1930 and 1960 featuring Desmond Merrion and Inspector Henry Arnold.
For more about Street and his extensive body of work, see Masters of the Humdrum Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the English Detective Novel by Curtis Evans (McFarland, 2012).
Dr. Priestley was Street’s most enduring creation. A former mathematics professor, he is a sort of forensics specialist at the time of the stories, only interested in the cases that Inspector Hanslet brings him if they offer an intriguing puzzle.
The seventeenth title about Priestley is an excellent example of his intellectual problem-solving. The Motor Rally Mystery (Collins Crime Club, 1934), published in the United States as Dr. Priestley Lays a Trap (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1933), describes a cross-country motor vehicle race that ends for two of the participants in what seems to be an unfortunate crash. The speeds of the vehicles and the deadlines to which they were held make the wreck unsurprising. Dr. Priestley asks questions about tread marks on the road and other forensic evidence from the scene. The answers are dubious enough to raise official eyebrows, and the police launch an investigation despite the coroner’s finding of accidental death.
The plot hearkens back to those GAD stories that involve analysis of train schedules and train stops, as Dr. Priestley reviews maps of the race course and the various checkpoints along the way. The distances between official pit stops and the road condition receive his focused attention, as does the wreckage of the fatal motor car. In classic great detective style, he keeps his assistants in the dark until the last minute when the unexpected culprit is revealed.
The Dr. Priestley books are always a pleasure to visit. The elaborate solutions are impossible for me to guess, the writing is strong, and the pacing is even. The series is essential reading for anyone interested in traditional mysteries.