Proceed With Caution
john RhodeThe Contents: Prologue / Part One - Jimmy's Case / Part 2 - Hanslet's Case / Part Three - Jimmy Gets a Shock / Part Four - Dr. Priestley Comes to the Rescue / Epilogue.
The first case is Jimmy's, that is Inspector Jimmy Waghorn's, a graduate of Cambridge and the Metropolitan Police College who had been for a couple of years attached to Superintendent Hanslet at Scotland Yard. A burnt and thus unidentifiable body has been found in a tar boiler. The circumstances involve a motor hearse, a mysterious commercial traveller and a local drunkard with a hare-lip and a disfigured ear. Jimmy's investigations soon seem to lead to the solution of the mystery. Hanslet's case is about a diamond merchant who disappeared with a valuable necklace. It seems to be easy, too.
But Jimmy gets a shock finding out that his solution for the body in the tar boiler is totally wrong. And Hanslet's results are also far from satisfactory. Both of them didn't follow the advice contained in the title of the novel ‘Proceed with Caution’. So Dr. Priestley comes to the rescue and suggests some new lines of investigation. He even does a bit of sleuthing himself and eventually presents the solution.