Forgotten Book - The Ellerby Case

The Ellerby Case was the third novel by John Rhode to feature Dr Priestley. The book was published in 1927 and it showed Rhode's ability as a crime writer, even though he was still finding his way. For instance, this novel is narrated by Priestley's secretary Harold Merefield, a narrative device Rhode had used in the previous book but then abandoned (just as Rhode abandoned Priestley's daughter April, whose romance with Harold was a feature of the great man's first case). At one point, the detective's initials are given as 'J.P.', which is odd, given that we'd been told previously (and would be told again subsequently) that Priestley's first name was Lancelot. But that's the trouble with writing a series. It's so easy to forget what one has said about one's characters. Believe me, I know!

In this novel, Priestley celebrates his 58th birthday and is a little more human and less cantankerous and irritating than in some of his appearances. He is also pretty active, though his interventions come at a cost. When the villain realises Priestley is on his trail, he tries to dispose of him. There's one good scene involving the tidal bore on the River Trent (and the bore, or eagre, does exist), and another incident involves a hedgehog with poisonous green spines (which is rather less authentic, to say the very least). Michael Delving's Bored to Death (1975) incidentally, also involves a dangerous tidal bore, this time on the Severn. I don't think any other writer has used killer hedgehogs in a plot.

The investigation begins when Priestley's old friend Sir Noel Ellerby returns to his Lincolnshire mansion to look into a burglary in which nothing seems to have been stolen. Ellerby dies of heart failure, seemingly a natural death, but Priestley is not satisfied, and of course he is right to be suspicious. Soon he is on the track of an ingenious criminal with a high level of practical expertise, especially in the field of chemistry.

The case involves an excise fraud concerning contraband saccharine, which seems rather unlikely to me, if not as unlikely as murder by hedgehog. The culprit is easily spotted, but this is a lively tale. Priestley had another 69 cases ahead of him after this early investigation, but in few of the books is he as active as he is here.