Miles BurtonReseñas

not preferred subject matter but fairly well written and would try author again w another title

This writer published various crime novels in the 1930s when he was in vogue to the 1960s when his work was regarded as increasingly old fashioned. Unlike Agatha Christie's work - he was apparently a friend of hers - there's no real characterisation or psychology which I think explains her longevity whereas he has become a forgotten writer, revived in this series of reprints. However, that wasn't the real problem I had with this.

It starts off as a classic locked room mystery with a man found shot dead in a railway carriage. The door leading to the tracks was unlocked though and the train slowed in a tunnel due to lights indicating a workman signalling red then green. So in theory someone could have stepped aboard - except that signalmen in boxes at both ends had a good view and swear that no one could have got past them. It looks like suicide but there are a few unanswered questions, and Inspector Arnold is called upon. He involves his amateur sleuth friend, Desmond Merrion, and they embark on a series of cross-country investigations following up various leads and considering the theories which Merrion comes up with. The policeman is a plodder and becomes fixated on one individual being the culprit although Merrion tries to steer him away from that multiple times.

It's never a good thing for me when I spot things before the protagonist(s) and that was certainly the case with the mystery of the tunnel, which I instantly picked up on when another character mentioned a way someone could have got in or out - but the two detectives failed to pick up on it for quite a while until the penny dropped with Merrion. However, the real issue is that the crime was pre-planned with various elements put in place or things checked regarding the timing of the shooting, and yet the eventual denouement showed that the murder wasn't even necessary. I won't go into spoilers but given that a particular person could have got their hands on the loot and then absconded, with or without first sharing it with one of the others, I couldn't see why anyone needed to commit murder in the first place. I can't therefore give the book any more than a 2 star rating.

Very generic, dull story. Single point of interest are the supernatural trappings, but they're used and written very badly. The main characters are terminally thick, making the story drag on longer than it should and causing me to throw up my hands in annoyance when they almost die but get saved by absurd good fortune. Solution to the "mystery" obvious from like halfway through. Ridiculous pointless unconvincing love plot. The whole supernatural thing makes *no sense* and only served to draw more attention to the criminal activities. Quotes heavily from Margaret Murray on the supposed existence of a witch cult. Ends with not all the criminals getting their comeuppance and the main characters being glad because it means less annoyance for them. The country squire whose daughter the main character falls in love with and marries was totally in on the evil criminal plot so he doesn't want the plot exposed b/c it might tarnish her reputation! It's all ok cause he apparently dies very soon after the main action finishes so no worries. All the characters talk the same, there's 0 characterisation, the dialogue is dull as anything, it's all dull, even the action is dull. Just. Blurgh

Great good fun from two practiced masters of the impossible crime. The murderer and motive were a bit obvious, but the means were as ingenious as they come.

John Rhode is a pseudonym for John Cecil Street, who also wrote books using the names Miles Burton and Cecil Waye.

An intricate mystery involving a possibly haunted house, a small village, a country estate near a military camp, and military secrets being received by the German Minister in Ireland. As in another book from the Golden Age of British Mystery, someone who appears not quite right is worthy of more suspicion than he gets. There is also mention of a weird religious cult.

I liked the explanation of the name Cyprus Lodge, the house where mysterious deaths occur: Cypress trees surround the house, which in no way is anything like the definition of a lodge. [pp. 5-6] And I learned "the first armoured fighting vehicles [were] camouflaged as [water] tanks"! [p.127]

I read the book because I happened upon the website for the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA, which had an exhibit called "Murder He Wrote". The description lists some of Gorey's favorite murder mystery authors: Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Georgette Heyer, Josephine Tey, Michael Innes, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, and Cecil Street. I would read another Street (aka John Rhode) if I saw one to give him a second change, but I wouldn't seek one out.½

Victor Harleston drops dead shortly after sitting down to breakfast; he was quite obviously poisoned. All clues point to his half-siblings Janet and Philip as the likely culprits; after all, they are the only ones who seem to benefit from his death. However, when Victor’s boss, Mr. Knott, mysteriously disappears just a few days after Victor’s death, the case becomes more complicated. Although all clues point to Gavin Slater as Mr. Knott’s murderer, no one can find a body. And it is just too much of a coincidence to suppose that the two murders aren’t connected in some way. Superintendent Hanslet is once more on the case, which seems like a boon for criminals everywhere; fortunately, Dr. Lancelot Priestley is in the background to keep things in perspective.

The narrative begins with Victor Harleston’s murder and the investigation into that crime. Then, after Mr. Knott’s disappearance, the focus switches to the investigation of that mystery. Although the two crimes are interrelated and eventually connected, the sudden switch in focus from one to the other makes the story disjointed.

As usual, Inspector Hanslet comes across as a mindless buffoon. He is highly susceptible to manipulation, and always seems ready to believe the most obvious suspect just has to be guilty and should be immediately arrested. He routinely goes to Dr. Priestley for advice, but rarely seems inclined to take it. One has to imagine that, in cases for which Dr. Priestley is not consulted, countless criminals are walking free and that numerous innocent people have been dragged to the gallows just because of Hanslet’s gross incompetence.

Of course, Dr. Priestley is an equally disagreeable character in his own way. He appears to know the solution to the crimes very early on, but refuses to say directly what is on his mind. He just sort of sits in his armchair giving vague suggestions to Hanslet and Waghorn without explanation or elaboration, while secretly laughing at them behind their backs. Consequently, he comes across as incredibly pompous and self-absorbed. And, because he enjoys toying with the police like they are his personal playthings, the solution of the crime takes about five times longer than it should.

This is an interesting mystery with a well-crafted solution. Unfortunately, it drags on way too long and I found myself skimming towards the end.

Nahum Pershore drops dead at the annual motor show at Olympia for no apparent reason. As the police begin their investigations, they discover three separate attempts on Mr. Pershore’s life have recently been made. It seems likely his sudden demise is a definite case of murder, but—with no obvious cause of death—how will it be proven?

There are certainly a lot of obvious suspects with a lot of obvious motives, and even a few that are not so obvious. There’s the niece who stands to inherit a hefty sum on Mr. Pershore’s death. And the nephew who stands to inherit next to nothing. Then again, Mr. Pershore seems to have engaged in some violent quarrels with all of his closest friends lately. He doesn’t seem to treat his former childhood sweetheart, now his housekeeper, with any great amount of civility either. And what about Mr. Pershore’s estranged half-brother Micah who made his own fortune in the Argentine, but whose present whereabouts are unknown? Oddly enough, many of the prime suspects just happen to be in attendance at the car show at the precise moment Mr. Pershore makes his final exit…that couldn’t just be a coincidence, or could it?

There is plenty of action and misdirection on hand in this entertaining whodunit.

A number of people really want Nahum Pershore dead, and it is easy to believe that any one of the suspects is actually guilty of the crime. Superintendent Hanslet, who is the primary investigator handling the case, comes across as somewhat of a buffoon; at various points throughout the story he is utterly convinced that every one of the suspects is undoubtedly the murderer. Most of the viable suspects do have the motives, means, and opportunities to commit the murder, and it kind of seems like the author may have just picked one out of a hat to bring the book to a conclusion. It is rather unfair that the reader is unable to work out the actual cause of death until Doctor Overland accidentally stumbles across it in an obscure medical journal late in the narrative. However, that does not really detract from the enjoyment value of the story.

Although it gets off to a slow start with a detailed discussion of automobile transmissions, this is an entertaining mystery that makes for a fun, weekend read.

This novel from a prolific writer who used a number of pseudonyms has a surprisingly modern feel to it. Private investigators Christopher and Vivienne Perrins are commissioned by Austin Wynter to investigate the murder of his brother, shot through the head while shaving. He is concerned that the local police have arrested the wrong man and that a miscarriage of justice will occur.

The private investigators try to focus on those who had the motive and opportunity to commit the crime and they agree that the suspect that the police have in custody is the wrong person. However the evidence seems to point towards their own client, and after a second murder occurs, he is arrested.

This is a really well constructed classic "who-dunnit" and is an enjoyable read. It is the beginning of a series of 4, all of which have been republished recently. The introduction by Tony Medawar made interesting reading.½

Excellent cover design showing a man in silhouette form approaching another in a bed, signifying danger ahead, a yellowish light accompanying the darkness

Unusually for a Rhode title, the method of murder, though ingenious, is discovered quite early on by Jimmy Waghorn with no help from the Professor - the problem is that there appears to be no motive for anyone to kill Caleb Glapthorne in such a manner. In fact, Priestley doesn't appear much until the very end, when he reveals the meaning of an old and very cryptic message and exposes the real killer, together with a second and incredibly carefully-planned crime.

It’s a locked-room mystery on the rails: Sir Wilfred Saxonby is found dead on the 5:00 p.m. from Cannon Street, shot presumably while the train was screeching through the Blackdown Tunnel. All signs initially point to suicide, but once Inspector Arnold and his friend Desmond Merrion start digging, the case becomes a lot more complex than either of them would have believed.

I found this a surprising amount of fun and finished it at a rapid pace. I liked the extensive discussions of the train infrastructure, and Merrion wasn’t too annoying with his leaps of logic—he was ready to admit when he was wrong and where his theory was missing some key points, rather than just assuming he was better than Inspector Arnold. (I had similar views of his character when reading the first book in the series, The Secret of High Eldersham.)

I would recommend this to enthusiasts of Golden Age mysteries who like their mysteries with trains in them.½

Generally speaking, Rhode's post-war work is not his best (with a few exceptions), but this one I found quite enjoyable, involving the murder of the said author by a rather cleverly-disguised bomb. Most of the detection is done by Jimmy Waghorn, with a little support from Dr. Priestley, and my main problem with the book is that Waghorn does something distinctly unethical at the end to persuade the main culprit to confess.½

Originally published in 1936, Death in the Tunnel is one of the mystery novels that was re-issued as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. I was really looking forward to this, not just because it satisfied a task in this year’s holiday scavenger hunt, but also because I was hoping to discover more great writers from the golden age of mystery writing.

Sadly, for me Death in the Tunnel fell short of that mark. The story started out great with a mysterious death on a train that seemed to occur just as the train passed through a tunnel, yet there were no witnesses, no motives, no suspects, and according to the chief investigator it looked like suicide. (Tho, why there would be such an elaborate investigation if this was a suicide is a question that is not really answered…)

Anyway, the leading detective starts to interview people close to the dead man and at some point draws another investigator into the case. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I’ll come straight to the problem I had with the story – the two investigators are utterly useless idiots, who come up with one random theory after another and seem to be stumbling along in the proverbial dark until the very, very end of the book.

Seriously, I had to roll my eyes a lot at their assumptions so many times because they just were the least logical conclusions ever – and yet, we were supposed to believe that this was great detecting when it seemed they created most of the red herrings themselves instead of actually sifting through the relevant information.

Death in the Tunnel is one of those books that would make for a pleasant beach read or something to pass the time while waiting at the dentist’s, but I found it really tiresome as an antidote to a craving for a delicious mystery.

Very satisfying to read a book with interesting characters, a sensible solution, no hide the ball nonsense, and logical revealing of the clues. One of the better mysteries I have read.

Written in 1925, and the first of many (very many!) books to feature Lancelot Priestley, this is a welcome re-release of a Golden Age detective novel. Yes, it feels a bit dated and some of the stereotypes are perhaps a little questionable for a modern audience, but it was an interesting entry into the genre and I am looking forward to getting hold of more to see how the character develops. Rhode (who wrote under various pseudonyms) was a member of the Detection Club, and his creation Priestley, as an academic and mathematician, is interested in the facts, the logic, and working out the puzzles - justice is a vague thing that may or may not happen (at least going by this first novel). If you want to delve further into the 1920s detective genre, this is a nice little treat.

A traditional detective puzzler. After a laboriously detailed introduction to the isolated English village of Goose Green and environs, an ever-more-intricate network of clues emerges to fit into a densely woven scenario. Mrs Burge sets out with a collecting tin to raise donations for the local hospital, and never returns home; but her husband has also disappeared. As the bodies accumulate, quiet villagers turn out to have a shady past. A good page-turner. MB 1-ix-2018

The Paddington Mystery is a reprint of a Golden Age detective novel featuring Dr. Priestley. Dr. Priestley appears in 72 books published from 1925 to 1961. John Rhode (Cecil John Street) also published another 50+ series mystery novels under the pen name of Miles Burton. Both the Rhode and the Burton novels are being republished by the British Library, Poisoned Pen Press or Collins Crime Club.

I won't rehash the plot here, but this is classic Golden Age fare. Dr. Priestley is a mathematics professor who applies his specialty to many of life's problems. He is a detective who uses his brains to analyze the situation, theorizing and rejecting scenarios that don't fit the facts until he comes up with the solution to the mystery. In this story, others come to him with the clues/facts. Priestley is very likable and doesn't seem too full of himself as some other detectives do. I also liked his daughter, April, and the main character, Harold Merefield, and am hoping to see more of them in future novels. As with most Golden Age detective novels, the focus of the story is the mystery and not the characters, so those looking for well-developed characters may be disappointed.

I found the mystery to be original, although I must confess that I had a good idea about what was going on right at the beginning and kept thinking that there would be a plot twist that would prove me wrong. Even though I guessed the solution, I still enjoyed the book, as it was interesting to see how it all played out. The story and the clues played out little by little, and it was easy to follow Priestley's solution. Classically, Priestley brings everyone together at the end to resolve the mystery.

If you enjoy Golden Age detective fiction, I think you will enjoy this novel. I'm looking forward to reading more of Rhode's Dr. Priestley mysteries.

lento, lento come un giallo d'alti tempi. Ma riesce a nascondere il colpevole fino quasi alla fine. Non è poco

Interesting premise but a very slow read and on the repetitious side. Man taking the train is murdered in his compartment on the train apparently during a suspicious stop in a tunnel. Detectives do a plodding investigation and seem to have the same conversations over and over again. I guessed who the murderer was early on and pushed myself to finish the book. I bought it because I loved the cover and had read two other British Classics in this series.½

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

High Eldersham is somewhat reminiscent of Sanford from Hot Fuzz -- a village that looks idyllic but harbours unsavoury secrets. The idea of a witchcraft cult is ridiculous, but Burton carries off this story with aplomb. His hero, Desmond Merrion, strikes the right balance of clever amateur and recognizer of police authority, and the story is well paced and kept me turning the pages, even as I predicted certain elements of the plot. For a first in series, it works very well indeed, and I'm looking forward to more of them.½

A pleasant enough read but not one I can really recommend. Most of the 'action' takes place in the conversations of Inspector Arnold and his pal, Desmond Merrion. There is an awful lot of chat. The plot is complicated relying on many details which aren't evident until the two protagonists tell you about them. There is an interesting, and crucial, introduction of what, in 1936, was cutting-edge technology but enough said about that.

One of those books which make me wish for the time back to read something better. Too many books, too little time!½

The wonderful British Library Crime Classics keep coming I'm glad to say.
Another mystery set in a sleepy village peopled by mistrustful residents.
When the landlord of the Rose and Crown Samuel Whitehead, a former London police sergeant is found murdered Scotland Yard is called in.
Detective Inspector Young finds that people are reluctant to give information and during his investigations he uncovers a witches coven and drug smuggling between Belgium and England.
It all culminates in an exciting finale with a satisfying end.
Great read!
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

I love that Poisoned Pen Press and another publisher or two are seeking out and bringing back Golden Age mysteries, really solid books written in the thirties and often only rarely seen since. I'd never come across Miles Burton ("one of the pen-names used by Cecil John Street") before, and how marvelous is it to find a new-to-me author with a decent bibliography I get to read?

Pretty marvelous, is how marvelous.

Now, Miles Burton was no Dorothy L. Sayers or Josephine Tey, an author I'll follow anywhere. But he was pretty darn good. The crime in this book is a sort of a twist on a locked-room mystery: a death that takes place on a train as it goes through a tunnel. It looks like a suicide. Suicide makes sense. Murder makes no sense at all. But our detective, Inspector Arnold, and his buddy Desmond Merrion ("a wealthy amateur expert in criminology"), don't like it as a suicide.

Merrion is, perhaps, a few too many miles ahead of the professional, and the professional just a tad too content with following along behind – but even so it's a good story, nicely told. One thing In particular that I like is the almost twenty-first century level of caution in the investigators statements. No one seems willing to say "This is the gun used to shoot the victim" or "this is the bullet that killed him"; it is all about the evidence. It's so common for a mystery to set up a really corking situation, only to fizzle in the solution – and that doesn't happen here. The plotting was clever, if a bit confusing at a time ("who's that, now?"), and the solution satisfying. I look forward to more.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review – my thanks to them and the publisher.

I have nothing but praise for these very entertaining re published novels from British Library archives.
They invoke a time long gone when life was not as hectic as today.
Very highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.