Rhode, John - The Ellerby Case (1927)

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

4/5

On their third appearance, Dr. Priestley and Harold Merefield are both notably active, nearly losing their lives due to the machinations of a murderous dealer in contraband saccharine whom Priestley recognises as one of the most rational and far - seeing murderers he has encountered. And such ingenuity the murderer shows fully bears out Dr. Priestley’s assessment of his opponent, for who but a genius would think of murder by bore or (O porpentine mirabilis!) by green hedgehog? The thriller element is far superior to that in the more popular Murders in Praed Street: Priestley thinks his way to the solution, discovering both the method of distribution and the identity of the culprit (unlike Praed Street, where he is taken by surprise at the glaringly obvious). These are disclosed to the reader one chapter after he has determined for himself who the individual is and how he operates; one of Rhode’s greatest gifts is to assume the reader’s intelligence, and not to blithely end every book with the (often insulting) surprise solution which the reader foresaw from Chapter III.

Nick Fuller