Death of Mr Gantley, 1932 (Desmond Merrion # 4) by Major Cecil John Charles Street writing as Miles Burton

Rare Treasure Editions, 2025. Book Format: Kindle Edition. File Size: 579 KB. Print Lenght: 235 pages. ASIN: B0FCJVLPLN. ISBN- ‎ 978-8087830802. Originally published in the UK by Collins Crime Club, February 1932. The first where Inspector Henry Arnold and amateur sleuth Desmond Merrion appear together in full partnership –this dynamic would define over fifty later mysteries.

Overview: Mr Gantley, owner of the “Downhamshire Courier”, is found dead in his car one Monday morning not far from his native town of Carnford. He had been shot through the head. Lady Gantley, Gantley’s sister-in-law, had died suddenly from a heart attack on the Saturday evening, and from her will it appeared that in the event of her death preceding that of Gantley her fortune shall go to her niece and nephew, Charles and Myrtle Harrington. If Gantley died first then her fortune should go to her companion, Sylvia Chadwick, and her brother Percy. Both Inspector Driffield, who is a local man, and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard are baffled by the crime. A lucky meeting with Desmond Merrion brings that skilled investigator into the case, to which he eventually succeeds in supplying a brilliant and surprising solution.

My Take: Death of Mr Gantley is a classic Golden Age detective novel within the fair play canon. One Monday morning, Mr Gantley, owner of the “Downhamshire Courier”, is found dead shot to the head in a car accident.

Shortly before, the reader learned that he was last seen on Sunday evening, when he stopped his car at a pub to ask where he could fill up in the village, as he was running a bit short. Later, while driving home, a former employee who held a grudge against him caused the accident by throwing a rock at his car.

Inspector Driffield of the local constabulary takes charge of the investigation and enlists the help of Scotland Yard, who sends Inspector Arnold to assist him. The case raises many questions particularly as it attempts to reconstruct Mr Gantley’s final steps over his last weekend. The exact time of his death also proves to be a crucial issue. Coincidentally, Mr Gantley’s sister-in-law also died that weekend, and his inheritance depends on which of the two deaths occurred first.

The investigation comes to a standstill when the two inspectors fail to gather enough evidence to bring the prime suspect before a judge. But the proverbial appearance of Desmond Morris turns the investigation around and helps solve the case.

He [Arnold] knew how often it happened that the police were fully convinced of a person’s guilt, but lacked the necessary evidence which would convict him. Sometimes, by patient work, more often that not aided by luck, the missing link in the chain could be discovered. And then, often when the crime had been forgotten, the criminal could be brought to book.

Death of Mr Gantley is an outstanding early book by Miles Burton on account of its innovative structure, a well-crafted and nicely written plot, and the inclusion of a leading duo—a real success in my view—that offers the reader two different perspectives throughout the investigation: Arnold brings police procedural experience, while Merrion supplies deductive insight.

Death of Mr Gentley has been reviewed, among others, by Nick Fuller at “The Grandest Game in the World”, J. F. Norris at “Pretty Sinister Books”, Steven Barge at “In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel” and R. E. Faust at “Witness to the Crime”.

About the Author: Cecil John Charles Street OBE MC (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a propagandist for MI7, in which role he held the rank of Major. After the armistice, he alternated between Dublin and London during the Irish War of Independence as Information Officer for Dublin Castle, working closely with Lionel Curtis. He later earned his living as a prolific writer of detective novels written under several pseudonyms including John Rhode, Miles Burton and Cecil Waye. In 1930 Street became one of the founding members of England’s Detection Club, and he remained active in the group for two decades. His greatest friend in the Club, John Dickson Carr and Lucy Beatrice Malleson (who wrote as Anthony Gilbert) remembered him warmly.

Street produced two long-running series of novels: one under the name John Rhode, featuring the forensic scientist Dr Priestley, and another as Miles Burton, mostly featuirng the retired naval officer Desmond Merrion.

The Rhode books are classics of scientific detection in which the elderly Dr Priestley demonstrates how seemeingly impossible crimes have been committed. The Burton series are more traditional detective fiction featuring Desmond Merrion, a military intelligence officer turned private detective, and Henry Arnold, a Scotland Yard inspector. The Burton series began in 1930 with the novel The Secret of High Eldersham and consists of a total of 61 books. The last one, Legacy of Death, was published in 1960.

Street was extremely reticent about his private life. He refused to be listed in Who’s Who, and many reference works do not indicate the exact date of his birth or death. Even after the 1960 publication of Legacy of Death and Death Paints a Picture, Miles Burton’s true identity remained a closely guarded secret. Only after his death did it emerge that the name was a pseudonym for John Street, better known as John Rhode, dozens of whose books were set in the rural England he loved. Street’s talent for remaining a man of mystery was emphasised when Golden Age expert and researcher Tony Medawar revealed in 2003 that in the early 1930s he had also written four obscure mysteries under the name Cecil Waye, featuring “London’s most famous private eye”, Christopher Perrin.

Critic and author Julian Symons places Street as a prominent member of the “Humdrum” school of detective fiction. “Most of them 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 than S. 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.”

Desmond Merrion Series: The Secret of High Eldersham (1930) (Also published as: The Mystery of High Eldersham [1933]),  Menace on the Downs (1931), The Three Crimes (1931), Death of Mr Gantley (1932), Fate at the Fair (1933), Tragedy at the Thirteenth Hole (1933), Death at the Crossroads (1933), To Catch A Thief (1934), The Charabanc Mystery (1934), The Devereux Court Mystery (1935), The Milk-Churn Murder (1935) (US Title: The Clue of the Silver Brush [1936]), Where is Barbara Prentice? (1936) (US Title: The Clue of the Silver Cellar [1937]), Death in the Tunnel (1936) (US Title: Dark Is the Tunnel [1936]), Murder of a Chemist (1936), Death at the Club (1937) (US Title: The Clue of the Fourteen Keys [1937]), Murder in Crown Passage (1937) (US Title: The Man with the Tattooed Face [1937]), Death at Low Tide (1938), The Platinum Cat (1938), Mr Babbacombe Dies (1939), Death Leaves No Card (1939), Mr Westerby Missing (1940), Murder in the Coalhole (1940) (US Title: Written in Dust [1940]), Death Takes a Flat (1940) (US Title: Vacancy with Corpse [1941]), Up the Garden Path (1941) (US Title: Death Visits Downspring [1941]), Death of Two Brothers (1941), This Undesirable Residence (1941) (US Title: Death at Ash House [1942]), Dead Stop (1943), Murder, M.D. (1943) (US Title: Who Killed the Doctor? [1943]), Four-Ply Yarn (1944) (US Title: The Shadow on the Cliff [1944]), The Three Corpse Trick (1944), Early Morning Murder(1945) (US Title: Accidents Do Happen [1946]), Not a Leg to Stand On (1945), The Cat Jumps (1946), Situation Vacant (1946), Heir to Lucifer (1947), A Will in the Way (1947), Devil’s Reckoning (1948), Death in Shallow Water (1948), Death Takes the Living (1949) (US Title: The Disappearing Parson [1949]), Look Alive (1949), Ground for Suspicion (1950), A Village Afraid (1951), Beware Your Neighbour (1951), Murder Out of School (1951), Murder On Duty (1952) Heir to Murder (1953), Something to Hide (1953), Murder in Absence (1954), Unwanted Corpse (1954), A Crime in Time (1955), Murder Unrecognised (1955), Death in a Duffle Coat (1956), Found Drowned (1956), The Chinese Puzzle (1957), The Moth-Watch Murder (1957), Bones in the Brickfield (1958), Death Takes a Detour (1958), Return from the Dead (1959), A Smell of Smoke (1959), Death Paints a Picture (1960), Legacy of Death (1960).

Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, most of these novels are difficult to find, although The British Library Crime Classics recently published The Secret of High Eldersham and Death in the Tunnel. Other instalments, to my knowledge, may be available electronically, including some interesting titles such as: Death of Mr Gantley, Death Leaves No Card, Murder M.D., and Death Takes the Living.

Further reading: Masters of the “Humdrum” Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961 by Curtis Evans, McFarland, 2014.