Dr. Lancelot Priestley is a fictional investigator born in July 1869 in a series of books by John Rhode After 1924, Dr. Priestley took over from Dr. Thorndyke as the leading fictional forensic investigator in Britain, and featured in 72 novels written over 40 years, solving many ingenious and misleading murders. Dr Priestley's involvement is usually at the request of the police but only if the case piques his scientific curiosity; having little, or no, interest in criminal justice. "Hanslet had brought many problems which confronted him in the course of his duties to Dr. Priestley's notice, usually with results highly satisfactory to himself. But in nearly every case Dr. Priestly's interest in the problem ceased when he had solved it to his own satisfaction. The fate of the criminal was a