Cecil John Charles StreetOBEMC (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), also known asJohn Street, was amajor in theBritish Army and a crime fiction novelist.
He began his military career as anartillery officer and duringWorld War I, he became a propagandist forMI7.[1] During theIrish War of Independence, he acted as an Information Officer forDublin Castle alternating between Dublin and London and working closely with the British officialLionel Curtis.[2] He later earned his living as a prolific writer ofdetective novels written under several pseudonyms includingJohn Rhode,Miles Burton andCecil Waye.
Street was born inGibraltar to GeneralJohn Alfred StreetCB ofWoking, and his second wife, Caroline, daughter of Charles Horsfall Bill ofStorthes Hall, Yorkshire, head of alanded gentry family.[3][4] Caroline had married comparatively late and her only son was born when she was thirty-five. General Street, having retired from the Army at the age of sixty-two just after his son's birth, died suddenly. Consequently, Street and his mother went to live with his maternal grandparents at their house in Firlands, Woking, which was "comfortably staffed with seven domestics".[5] Street remained "modestly circumspect" about his privileged background in later life and valued "a man's personal accomplishments over his family heritage".[6]
He later served as a Captain in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was wounded three times in combat and won theMilitary Cross for his services. As a Major, he headed a branch of British Military Intelligence and later, he acted as an Information Officer at the headquarters of the British administration, based in Dublin Castle.[7]
In 1906, Street married Hyacinth Maud Kirwan, daughter of Major John Denis Kirwan of theRoyal Artillery. They had a daughter, Verena Hyacinth Iris Street, who spent most of her life living with her grandmother and died in 1932 aged 25. The marriage was unsuccessful, with Maud suffering mental imbalance and getting admitted to a private asylum.[5] They were separated by the late 1930s.
Street later lived with Eileen Annette Waller, granddaughter of the Irish writerJohn Francis Waller, who belonged to alanded gentry branch of theWaller baronets ofTipperary.[8] They married in 1949, shortly after his first wife's death. They lived "a comfortable life together" living in "attractive older homes" including The Orchards,Laddingford, Kent, andSwanton Novers, Norfolk.[9]
John Street wrote three series of novels; one under the name ofJohn Rhode, mostly featuring the mathematics professorDr. Lancelot Priestley;[10] another under the name ofMiles Burton, mostly featuring the retired naval officer Desmond Merrion; and a third under the name ofCecil Waye, featuring the Perrins Investigators.
The Dr. Priestley novels followed in the tradition ofArthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries andR. Austin Freeman'sDr. Thorndyke books by featuring scientific detection of crimes,[10] such as analysing the mud on suspects' shoes.
Notable crime fiction criticJulian Symons considered Street to be a prominent member of the "Humdrum" school of detective fiction. According to Symons, "Most of them [the "Humdrums"] came late to writing fiction, and few had much talent for it. They had some skill in constructing puzzles, nothing more, and ironically they fulfilled much better thanS. S. Van Dine his dictum that the detective story properly belonged in the category of riddles or crossword puzzles. Most of the Humdrums were British, and among the best known of them were Major John Street."[11] The historianJacques Barzun was more positive towards Street, praising several Rhode books in particular, even though he reviewed only a small proportion of the more than 140 novels written by Street.[12]
In recent years, copies of many Rhode and Burton books have become hard to obtain and are highly sought after by collectors, often commanding "eye-wateringly" high prices.[13]
The only detailed account of Street's life and works was written by the crime fiction historian Curtis Evans in his 2012 bookMasters of the "Humdrum" Mystery who wrote the book "in part to give a long overdue reappraisal of these purportedly "humdrum" detection writers as accomplished literary artists. Not only did they produce a goodly number of fine fair play puzzles, but their clever tales have more intrinsic interest as social documents and even sometimes as literary novels than they have been credited with having."[14]
Pinehurst (1930) (U.S. titleDr. Priestley Investigates; on first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being by C J C Street)
Tragedy on the Line (1931). (On first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being by C J C Street)
The Hanging Woman (1931)
Mystery at Greycombe Farm (1932) (U.S. titleThe Fire at Greycombe Farm; on first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being by C J C Street)
The Robthorne Mystery (1934) When one of the Robthorne twins commits suicide, there is a question over which one it is and whether it was suicide or murder.
The Corpse in the Car (1935) Dr. Priestley solves how Lady Misterton was killed whilst sitting, alone, in her car. Supt Hanslet attempts to track down her killer.
Hendon's First Case (1935). (In first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being by C J C Street)
The Bloody Tower (1938) (U.S. titleThe Tower of Evil) – Inspector Waghorn identifies a ruthless murderer and solves a set of clues to the whereabouts of long-hidden treasure
Bricklayer's Arms (1945) (U.S. titleShadow of a Crime) (Dr. Priestley plays only a minor role in this book, all the actual detection being done by Inspector Waghorn)
The Lake House (1946) (U.S. titleSecret of the Lake House)
Death at the Inn (1953) (U.S. titleThe Case of the Forty Thieves) – Inspector Waghorn breaks a gang of thieves who have found an ingenious way to defraud the Post Office and, along the way, murder a man by poisoning
By Registered Post (1953) (U.S. titleThe Mysterious Suspect)
Death on the Lawn (1954)
The Dovebury Murders (1954)
Death of a Godmother (1955) (U.S. titleDelayed Payment)
The Domestic Agency (1955) (U.S. titleGrave Matters; on first publication in the U.S. the novel was promoted as being by C J C Street)
An Artist Dies (1956) (U.S. titleDeath of an Artist)
Open Verdict (1956)
Death of a Bridegroom (1957)
Robbery With Violence (1957)
Death Takes a Partner (1958)
Licensed For Murder (1958)
Murder at Derivale (1958). (On first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being by C J C Street)
Drop to His Death (1939) (U.S. titleFatal Descent; on its first publication in the U.S. the book was promoted as being solely by C J C Street), with "Carter Dickson", a pseudonym ofJohn Dickson Carr
Night Exercise (1942) (U.S. titleDead of the Night). Sir Hector Chalgrove, acerbic businessman andHome GuardColonel, disappears during a World War II night exercise. Major Ledbury (Officer Commanding the Wealdhurst Company, Home Guard) assists police to find the killer and assuage local suspicion of his guilt.
The Elusive Bullet. Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror - Second Series, Ed. Dorothy L Sayers, 1931 (Dr. Priestley story). Reprinted: Bodies from the Library. Ed. Tony Medawar.HarperCollins, 2018
The Vanishing Diamond. The Great Book of Thrillers. Ed. H. Douglas Thomson, 1935 (Dr. Priestley story)
The Yellow Sphere.Sunday Dispatch, 3 April 1938. Reprinted: Bodies from the Library 3. Ed. Tony Medawar. HarperCollins, 2020.
The Purple Line.Evening Standard, 20 January 1950. Reprinted: Evening Standard Detective Book, 1950 (Inspector Purley story)
Sixpennyworth. Bodies from the Library 2. Ed. Tony Medawar. HarperCollins, 2019. The play features Inspector Jimmy Waghorn and is set in the lounge of The Spotted Dog, a pub in a town whose name is not given, "emphatically so"; the play features a neat method of creating an instant blackout. No performances have been identified
Dr. Priestley,BBC Empire Service, talk as part of the series 'Meet the Detective', 1935
The Strange Affair at the Old Dutch Mill, play featuring Inspector Jimmy Waghorn,BBC National Programme, 7 October 1938, as part of the series 'What Happened at 8:20?"
Death Travels First, two-part play featuring Inspector Jimmy Waghorn,BBC Home Service, 2 and 9 July 1940 as part of a series of plays by members of the Detection Club
Murder M.D. (1943) (U.S. titleWho Killed the Doctor?)
Four-Ply Yarn (1944) (U.S. titleThe Shadow on the Cliff)
The Three Corpse Trick (1944)
Early Morning Murder (1945) (U.S. titleAccidents Do Happen)
Not A Leg to Stand On (1945)
The Cat Jumps (1946)
Situation Vacant (1946) -Two secretaries for Alys Whyttington die within months of each other. Arnold, Merrion and local confidant Mr Clipsham investigate the deaths and the mysterious past of Mrs Whyttington.
Heir to Lucifer (1947)
A Will in the Way (1947)
Devil's Reckoning (1948)
Death in Shallow Water (1948)
Death Takes the Living (1949) (U.S. titleThe Disappearing Parson)
Untitled, 48-page typescript of the opening chapters of a Merrion/Arnold novel, set in the villages of Kildersham and Dreford and concerning a death at a pheasant shoot and a drowning.
^Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961 Curtis Evans, McFarland, Inc., 2012, p. 53
^Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961 Curtis Evans, McFarland, Inc., 2012, p. 48
^A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, vol. 2, Bernard Burke, Harrison, 1879, p. 1676, "Waller of Cully and Finoe" pedigree
^Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961 Curtis Evans, McFarland, Inc., 2012, pp. 49-50, 53
British Army
