"With its fascinating mix of people, rich and poor, British and foreign, worthy and suspicious, London is a city where anything can happen." Indeed.

Sherlock Holmes wasn't the first literary detective, but he had his foot in the door early on, and the dark alleys of London imprinted themselves on the crime genre long before the likes of Hammett and Chandler got a look-in. The 17 tales collected here showcase various aspects of London, ranging from a non-Holmes Conan Doyle story from 1893 with quite a sting in its tale to a 1945 piece by Anthony Gilbert in which dodgy solicitor Arthur Crook tackles a case in a stifling pea-souper. Along the way we encounter a serial killer on the Underground, an amazing adventure with lip-reading sleuth Judith Lee and offerings by the likes of Margery Allingham and Edgar Wallace. They're not all brilliant, but these works of vintage crime fiction do all have a terrific sense of place and atmosphere.