tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6435570733711194686.post4305434667994463278..comments2023-11-15T20:30:24.859+00:00Comments on A Sign of the Crimes: Death in the Tunnel by Miles BurtonA Sign of the Crimeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05753757938979390225noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6435570733711194686.post-92021909005250170972017-09-28T19:30:53.199+01:002017-09-28T19:30:53.199+01:00Perhaps the earliest ones. Later on, Dr. Priestle...Perhaps the earliest ones. Later on, Dr. Priestley gets very annoying. He conceals his thought processes until the final chapters, and taunts/teases his associates (and the reader) with cryptic hints. There's always a character who is there to Not Get It who has to face palm in the final chapters. You can usually solve the mystery by figuring out the real meaning of what Dr. Priestly is hinting everyone has overlooked. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6435570733711194686.post-79074340740615084342017-09-28T16:53:15.531+01:002017-09-28T16:53:15.531+01:00Thank you, Noah! Maybe I'll read one every fiv...Thank you, Noah! Maybe I'll read one every five or ten years, so they never get too dull... Would you recommend the Rhode/Priestley books?A Sign of the Crimeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05753757938979390225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6435570733711194686.post-67282621350518892362017-09-28T16:50:02.303+01:002017-09-28T16:50:02.303+01:00You're quite right that the characters are the...You're quite right that the characters are the purest cardboard ... Street seems not to have had the knack of translating his knowledge of human nature, whatever it was, into the voice of someone unlike himself. To my mind he was quite right-wing and that perfuses the characterization sometimes to very odd effect ... a young woman has views that would not disgrace a retired Army colonel, say.<br />After you read a bunch more of these, I expect you'll find, as I did, that he was writing pretty much the same three or four plots over and over again. Someone is disguised, but is actually a figure from the victim's past; someone makes a weird mechanical contrivance or uses an unusual poison that kills someone; a Croftsian timetable mystery; a few other patterns. All very linear and static, with Cluedo-level characterization. I've read a bunch and only found a few that have any verve.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com