Rhode, John - The Hanging Woman (1931)

From http://www.geocities.com/bevis1uk/Rhode.htm

Review by Nick Fuller

3/5

An early John Rhode more interesting for what it reveals about Priestley's character than as a detective story. The identity of the man who hanged a young woman and caused an aeroplane pilot to crash his plane is obvious from the very beginning, so we anticipate the solution long before Priestley does. Indeed, although Priestley makes some clever deductions from a ball of French newspapers and the layout of the house in which the crime is committed, the detection is slow. The middle half of the book is entirely taken up with an attempt to trace the victim's movements in London and by rail. Yet the book is consistently entertaining, principally due to the book's dominant theme, explored through the characters of Dr. Priestley and Charles Partington, the enigmatic scientist at the heart of the story: the manner in which science can be a dehumanising process.