Hendon's First Case is a 1935 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street.

[1] It is the twenty first in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective.

[2] The novel introduced the character Inspector Jimmy Waghorn, a graduate of the newly established Hendon Police College.

In his review in the New Statesman Ralph Partridge noted the similarities between Superintendent Hanslet and Inspector French in Crime at Guildford by Freeman Wills Crofts, and concluded "Mr. Rhode has added another satisfactory but undistinguished volume to his shelf.".

The case is extremely tricky providing a test for both the different detecting styles of the new Inspector Waghorn and the more traditional Superintendent Hanslet.