Death at the Dance

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Death at the Dance
Death at the Dance.webp
Author John Rhode
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Lancelot Priestley
GenreDetective
Publisher Geoffrey Bles (UK)
Dodd Mead (US)
Publication date
1952
Media typePrint
Preceded by Doctor Goodwood's Locum  
Followed by Death in Wellington Road  

Death at the Dance is a 1952 mystery detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. [1] It is the fifty fourth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was published in America the same year by Dodd Mead. [2] It is set in a county in the West of England, a thinly-disguised Cornwall. Maurice Richardson wrote in The Observer "Not even the corniest of plots can make Rhode unreadable". More recently it has been described as offering a "clever plot with, unusual for Street, a hard-to-spot murderer and motive, as well as an appealing rural setting: a mysterious Hardyesque landscape of abandoned nineteenth century tin mines. [3]

Contents

Synopsis

In the small country town of Hadeston the annual festival known as "The Dance" is taking place when an elderly lady amongst the spectators falls ill and dies. Tests quickly show it was not a natural death, and yet it seems inconceivable that anyone should want to murder a woman not known for having an enemy in the world.

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<i>Blackthorn House</i> 1949 novel

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<i>Vegetable Duck</i> 1944 novel

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<i>Night Exercise</i> 1942 novel

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<i>Death Invades the Meeting</i> 1944 novel

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<i>Family Affairs</i> (novel) 1950 novel

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<i>The House on Tollard Ridge</i> 1929 novel

The House on Tollard Ridge is a 1929 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It marked the sixth appearance of the armchair detective Lancelot Priestley, who featured in a long-running series of novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The plot was partly inspired by Rudyard Kipling's short story Wireless, which Rhode mentions in the novel.

<i>Proceed with Caution</i> 1937 novel

Proceed with Caution is a 1937 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twenty-seventh in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was published in the United States the same year by Dodd Mead under the alternative title Body Unidentified.

<i>Men Die at Cyprus Lodge</i> 1943 novel

Men Die at Cyprus Lodge is a 1943 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty eighth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. Reviewing it for the San Francisco Chronicle, Anthony Boucher wrote "at his best, nobody can touch Rhode for ingenious murder gadgets and very few can top him for meticulous unravelling; he's very close his best in this one".

<i>Dead on the Track</i> 1943 novel

Dead on the Track is a 1943 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty seventh in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. Like a number of mystery novels of the era, it has a railway setting. In theme and plot it is very similar to the author's earlier 1931 work Tragedy on the Line. It is the first entry in the series since Hendon's First Case (1935) in which Priestley's old associate Hanslet is the lead investigator. The other recurring police officer in the series Inspector Jimmy Waghorn is now working with military intelligence.

<i>The Bloody Tower</i> 1938 novel

The Bloody Tower is a 1938 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twenty ninth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was published in the United States the same year by Dodd Mead under the alternative title Tower of Evil. It is notable amongst Rhode's more realistic style during the series, for its Gothic elements. For The Guardian E. R. Punshon wrote "in The Bloody Tower Mr. John Rhode gives another excellent example of his eminently satisfactory and solid talent."

<i>They Watched by Night</i> 1941 novel

They Watched by Night is a 1941 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty fifth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was published in the United States by Dodd Mead with the alternative title Signal for Death.

<i>Death at the Helm</i> 1941 novel

Death at the Helm is a 1941 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty fourth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It makes reference to earlier stories in the series as the lawyer had defended in court the murderers Priestley had exposed in The Corpse in the Car and Death on the Boat Train. The characters in it were arguably more complexly drawn than in other books by the author.

<i>Death on the Boat Train</i> 1940 novel

Death on the Boat Train is a 1940 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty second in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. As in most of the later novels much of the detective footwork is done by Inspector Waghorn of Scotland Yard. The construction of the murder setting bears similarities to Death in the Tunnel, written by Street under his other pen name Miles Burton. With is focus on seemingly unbreakable alibis and railway and ship timetables, it is also similar in style to the Inspector French novels of Freeman Wills Crofts.

<i>Death in Wellington Road</i> 1952 novel

Death in Wellington Road is a 1952 mystery detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the fifty fifth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. It was published in America the same year by Dodd Mead. A review in The New Yorker considered it "Not exactly inspired, but still a solid and conscientious job.".

References

  1. Magill p.1418
  2. Reilly p.1258
  3. Evans p.93

Bibliography