The year 1935 saw a big change in John Street's "John Rhode" series of detective novels, with a younger, college-educated young cop, Jimmy Waghorn, coming on board to join previous series regular policeman, Inspector/Superintendent Hanslet. Until the war, when Jimmy goes off into intelligence work and Hanslet delays his retirement, these two will work together at the Yard investigating cases and getting their asses handed to them by testy amateur sleuth Dr. Priestley. In it you see the beginnings of all the grizzled old superior and posh young upstart pairings you have now seen so many times in crime fiction. Here's a rating of their books between 1935 and 1940, plus Street's "Miles Burton" detective novels from the same years, featuring insouciant gentleman amatyer sleuth Desmond Merrion and Inspector Arnold.
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| aka The Bloody Tower |
15 JOHN RHODES
1935
The Corpse in the Car (this is the last book without Jimmy Waghorn) *****
Hendon's First Case ****
Mystery at Olympia ****
1936
Death at Breakfast ***
In Face of the Verdict ***
1937
Death in the Hopfields ****
Death on the Board *****
Proceed with Caution ****
1937
Invisible Weapons ****
The Bloody Tower *****
1939
Drop to His Death (nonseries, with John Dickson Carr) ****
Death Pays a Dividend (introduces Jimmy love interest, Diana Morpeth) ****
Death on Sunday ****
1940
Death on the Boat-Train ****
Murder at Lilac Cottage ***
14 MILES BURTONS
1935
The Devereux Court Mystery ****
The Milk Churn Murder ***
1936
Death in the Tunnel ****
Murder of a Chemist ****
Where Is Barbara Prentice? *****
1937
Death at the Club ****
Murder in Crown Passage ***
1938
Death at Low Tide ****
The Platinum Cat *****
1939
Death Leaves No Card (Arnold only) ****
Mr. Babbacombe Dies ***
Murder in the Coalhole ***
1940
Mr. Westerby Missing ****
Death Takes a Flat ***1/2
RHODES
3 5-star
9 4-star
3 3-star
BURTONS
2 5-star
7 4-star
1 3.5-star
4 3-star
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