Dr. Lancelot Priestley is a fictional investigator born in July 1869 in a series of books by
John Rhode
Cecil John Charles Street (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a ...
After 1924, Dr. Priestley took over from
Dr. Thorndyke as the leading fictional forensic investigator in Britain, and featured in 72 novels written over 40 years, solving many ingenious and misleading murders. Dr Priestley's involvement is usually at the request of the police but only if the case piques his scientific curiosity; having little, or no, interest in criminal justice. "''Hanslet had brought many problems which confronted him in the course of his duties to Dr. Priestley's notice, usually with results highly satisfactory to himself. But in nearly every case Dr. Priestly's interest in the problem ceased when he had solved it to his own satisfaction. The fate of the criminal was a matter of complete unconcern to him. He treated detection much as he would have treated a game of chess. The pieces in the game had no more than a passing interest to him. Not that he was unsympathetic by nature, as many people had good cause to know. But, in the problems which Hanslet set before him, he purposely took a detached and impersonal attitude. Only in this way, as he more than once remarked, was it possible to maintain an impartial judgement''"
Dr. Priestley had previously held the chair of Applied Mathematics at a leading
Midlands University until he abandoned his chair and retired to the house in Westbourne Terrace which he had inherited from his father, but is described as an independent researcher who delights in scientific controversy. Described in The Ellerby Case, Dr. Priestley's book "Fact and Fallacy" "''..contained in every one of its two hundred odd pages a direct and trenchant attack upon those whom the author was apt to allude to as "The Orthodox Scientific School"'' and "''So the reviews poured in by every post: denunciatory, indignant, sometimes distinctly abusive. And Dr Priestley would sit and gloat over them, as a primitive warrior might gloat over the blood of his adversaries''"
In the early books Dr. Priestly provides assistance mainly to his friend Chief Inspector Hanslet. In later books Dr. Priestley becomes an
armchair detective
An armchair detective is a fictional investigator who does not personally visit a crime scene or interview witnesses; instead, the detective either reads the story of the crime in a newspaper or has it recounted by another person. As the armcha ...
and the bulk of the legwork is done by Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn of
Scotland Yard and Priestley's secretary and companion, Harold Merefield. Harold Merefield, whom Dr. Priestley had cleared of a murder charge in the first book, ''
The Paddington Mystery'', is engaged to Dr. Priestley's daughter April. Superintendent Hanslet (now retired) appears in several later works as a dinner guest of Dr. Priestly passing on his professional wisdom to Waghorn.
Novels
* ''
The Paddington Mystery'' (1925)
* ''
Dr. Priestley's Quest'' (1926)
* ''
The Ellerby Case'' (1927)
* ''
The Murders in Praed Street
''The Murders in Praed Street'' is a 1928 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It features the fourth appearance of the armchair detective Lancelot Priestley, who figured in a long-running series of no ...
'' (1928)
* ''Tragedy at the Unicorn'' (1928)
* ''
The House on Tollard Ridge
''The House on Tollard Ridge'' is a 1929 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It marked the sixth appearance of the armchair detective Lancelot Priestley, who featured in a long-running series of novels ...
'' (1929)
* ''
The Davidson Case'' (1929)
* ''
Peril at Cranbury Hall'' (1930)
* ''Pinehurst'' (1930)
* ''
Tragedy on the Line'' (1931).
* ''The Hanging Woman'' (1931)
* ''Mystery at Greycombe Farm'' (1932)
* ''
Dead Men at the Folly'' (1932)
* ''
The Motor Rally Mystery'' (1933)
* ''
The Claverton Mystery'' (1933)
* ''
The Venner Crime
''The Venner Crime'' is a 1933 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the sixteenth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Golden Age ar ...
'' (1933)
* ''
The Robthorne Mystery'' (1934)
* ''
Poison for One'' (1934)
* ''
Shot at Dawn
''Shot at Dawn'' is a 1934 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the nineteenth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective.
Synopsis
A mo ...
'' (1934)
* ''
The Corpse in the Car
''The Corpse in the Car'' is a 1935 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twentieth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective.Reilly p. ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Hendon's First Case'' (1935).
* ''
Mystery at Olympia'' (1935)
* ''
Death at Breakfast'' (1936)
* ''
In Face of the Verdict'' (1936)
* ''
Death in the Hopfields
''Death in the Hopfields'' is a 1937 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twenty fifth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It w ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Death on the Board'' (1937)
* ''
Proceed with Caution'' (1937)
* ''
Invisible Weapons'' (1938)
* ''
The Bloody Tower
''The Bloody Tower'' is a 1938 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twenty ninth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was p ...
'' (1938)
* ''Death Pays a Dividend'' (1939)
* ''Death on Sunday'' (1939)
* ''
Death on the Boat Train
''Death on the Boat Train'' is a 1940 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty second in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective.Rei ...
'' (1940)
* ''
Murder at Lilac Cottage
''Murder at Lilac Cottage'' is a 1940 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty third in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective.Reil ...
'' (1940)
* ''
Death at the Helm
''Death at the Helm'' is a 1941 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty fourth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It make ...
'' (1941)
* ''
They Watched by Night'' (1941)
* ''
The Fourth Bomb'' (1942)
* ''
Dead on the Track'' (1943)
* ''
Men Die at Cyprus Lodge'' (1943)
* ''
Death Invades the Meeting'' (1944)
* ''
Vegetable Duck'' (1944)
* ''
Bricklayer's Arms'' (1945)
* ''
The Lake House'' (1946)
* ''
Death in Harley Street
''Death in Harley Street'' is a 1946 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the forty third in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age
The term Golden Ag ...
'' (1946)
* ''
Nothing But the Truth'' (1947)
* ''
Death of an Author'' (1947)
* ''
The Paper Bag'' (1948)
* ''
The Telephone Call
"The Telephone Call" (German: "Der Telefon-Anruf") is a song by the German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released in 1987 as the second and final single from their ninth studio album, '' Electric Café'' (1986). The single was their sec ...
'' (1948)
* ''
Blackthorn House'' (1949)
* ''
Up the Garden Path
''Up the Garden Path'' is a 1984 novel by Sue Limb, which was adapted into a radio series by BBC Radio 4, and later into a television sitcom by Granada TV for ITV. Both the radio and television series comprised three seasons, with the radio se ...
'' (1949)
* ''
The Two Graphs'' (1950)
* ''
Family Affairs
''Family Affairs'' is a British soap opera that aired on Channel 5. It debuted on 30 March 1997, the day of the launch of said channel and was the first programme broadcast on the channel. It was screened as five thirty-minute episodes per w ...
'' (1950)
* ''
The Secret Meeting'' (1951)
* ''Dr. Goodwood's Locum'' (1951)
* ''Death at the Dance'' (1952)
* ''Death in Wellington Road'' (1952)
* ''Death at the Inn'' (1953)
* ''By Registered Post'' (1953)
* ''Death on the Lawn'' (1954)
* ''The Dovebury Murders'' (1954)
* ''Death of a Godmother'' (1955)
* ''The Domestic Agency'' (1955)
* ''An Artist Dies'' (1956)
* ''Open Verdict'' (1956)
* ''Death of a Bridegroom'' (1957)
* ''Robbery With Violence'' (1957)
* ''Death Takes a Partner'' (1958)
* ''Licensed For Murder'' (1958)
* ''Murder at Derivale'' (1958)
* ''Three Cousins Die'' (1959)
* ''The Fatal Pool'' (1960)
* ''Twice Dead'' (1960)
* ''The Vanishing Diary'' (1961)
References
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Fictional scientists
Fictional mathematicians
Fictional amateur detectives
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