The Murders in Praed Street

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‘An absorbing murder mystery’ New York Times‘A very ingenious tale’ Times Literary Supplement‘The first serial killer detective novel I know of… a ground breaking book’ Martin Edwards, The Story of Classic Crime in 100 BooksGolden Age of Crime writer John Rhode’s fourth Dr Priestley detective novel, republished here for the first time in almost a centuryThis Spitfire Publishers edition includes a complete bibliography of John Rhode’s Dr Priestley detective novelsWith a strange and mysterious regularity, murder had come to the squalid, uninviting London neighbourhood of Praed Street. Not one murder, which might have caused a temporary excitement, but a succession of murders – each different from the others, yet all alike in that they seemed without cause. Scotland Yard were alert, but what clues were to be found succeeded in proving false. As a last resort, Dr Lancelot Priestley, whose unusual methods of investigation had solved other baffling problems, was persuaded to lend his assistance. At the very outset, Dr Priestley found that he himself was a marked man – his own life was at stake regardless of his part in the investigation of the serial killer.About the AuthorJohn Rhode was the pseudonym for the author Cecil Street, one of the best-selling and most popular British authors of the Golden Age of Crime. His most famous literary creation was Dr Lancelot Priestley, a forensic detective who featured in seventy-two novels written over forty years, solving many ingenious and misleading murders. Cecil Street was born in 1884 in Gibraltar to a military family. At sixteen he attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He served with distinction in the First World War and then in military intelligence before taking up writing full-time. He was a founding member of the Detection Club, the illustrious dining club of detective story writers, and created the famous ‘Eric the Skull’ used in the rituals of the organisation. He would write over 140 detective novels and died aged 80, in 1964.Praise for John Rhode‘A Dr Priestley story is always an event for armchair sleuths’ New York Times‘Scientific investigator, Dr Priestley, is one of the most satisfactory successors to Sherlock Holmes’ New York Times‘Dr Priestley, a scientist with a flair for criminal investigation’ New York Times‘Standing in the front rank of those who write detective fiction’ Times Literary Supplement‘Any murder planned by John Rhode is bound to be ingenious’ The Observer‘One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great feeling of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, a well-knit process of reasoning and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact’ Dorothy L Sayers