Peter Haining (ed.) - London after Midnight

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Peter Haining (ed.) - London after Midnight: A Tour of its Criminal Haunts (Barnes & Noble, 1996)

Jacket design by Tom Keveny

Peter Haining - Introduction

I. BLACK SPOTS

Robert Arthur - The Knife
Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu and the Frightened Redhead
Thomas Burke - The Funspot-Street Affair
P. D. James - The Girl Who Loved Graveyards
Patricia Moyes - The Most Hated Man in London
Carter Dickson - Flight from Fleet Street
Michael Gilbert - Dangerous Game
Gerald Kersh - Karmesin the Murderer
Allan Prior - The Day Lucky's Luck Ran Out
Graham Greene - A Little Place off the Edgware Road
Ruth Rendell - People Don't Do Such Things

II. CITY SLEUTHS

John Rhode - The Elusive Bullet
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventure of the Worst Man in London
H. C. Bailey - The Bottle Party
Peter Cheney - Aces High
Agatha Christie - Yellow Iris
E. C. Bentley - Trent and the Fool-proof Lift
Dorothy L. Sayers - The Cave of Ali Baba
Margery Allingham - The Border-line Case
Julian Symons - The Santa Claus Club
John Dickson Carr - The Incautious Burglar
R. Austin Freeman - The Bones of the Case

Blurb:
When we think of London, our first thoughts are usually of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. London's image seems inexorably tied to the landmarks of its glorious history and the reminders of the British Empires age of splendor.
Yet there is another, darker London which is no less famous — the city of fog-enshrouded midnights and alleyways lit eerily by gas lamps. It is a place of mayhem, murder, and mystery, which serves to remind us that even amid glory and splendor, there is evil.
In this bone-chilling collection of twenty-two stories, some of London's most macabre wordsmiths offer a guided tour of the city's darker side.
Each story is rich in details of the metropolis's most deadly ground, taking you through the neighborhoods where Jack the Ripper and other infamous villains once stalked. The criminals. however, do not stand unopposed in their efforts; the very same city is the site of Holmes's Baker Street, Poirot's Park Lane, and the world-famous Scotland Yard. As the tales progress through this famous landscape of crime and criminology, each author expertly evokes the mood of London by night.

Including tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers. and Graham Greene, London After Midnight will have you convinced that you hear footsteps on the cobblestones behind you as the fog rolls in.

We're still not quite done with Peter Haining. Here's one from the author's crime catalogue. 'Black spots' section is not entirely lacking in supernatural horrors.

Robert Arthur - The Knife: (Mysterious Traveler Magazine, Nov. 1951). Herbert Smithers finds the antique knife in a pile of muck along Dorset Street, Whitechapel. When a barmaid at The Three Oaks tries to take it from him for a better look at the ruby embedded in the hilt, he snaps and plants it in her breast. Horrified at what he's done, Smithers runs from the pub leaving behind the murder weapon which Edward Dawes greedily retrieves. Dawes is trying to prize free the jewel when his wife disturbs him to become another victim of the demon knife. When apprehended, both men swear the blade acted independent of them. Inspector Frayne wonders about a previous owner.

Carter Dickson - Flight from Fleet Street: (London Magazine, Feb-March 1952). American diplomat Bill Leslie has a romantic view of London courtesy of Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu and the crimes of Jack the Ripper. His English wife, Betsy, assures him her capital is far less colourful than he imagines. Now, thanks to a European assignment, he is about to find out for himself. Shunning the grander hotels, the Leslie's put up at Hampden's on Fleet Street. No sooner have they checked in than Bill receives a visitor, Chief Inspector Radford of the Yard, who is in urgent pursuit of Flash Morgan, a razor fiend responsible for several murders. Morgan and Bill Leslie are of such strikingly similar physical appearance they might be identical twins! Radford rather ghoulishly advises Bill what is likely to happen to him should he leave the hotel, but the American has an adventurous streak and sets out to track down the killer. The trail leads to a barber shop at number 996 (!) Fleet Street. Mr. Henry S. Todd is open for business ...

Thomas Burke - The Funspot-Street Affair: (John Gawsworth [ed.] Thrills, Crimes and Mysteries, 1935). A rent collector finds the Islington street name a constant source of amusement and fantasises that a horrible tragedy will befall it. Something epic, something so disgustingly gruesome as to secure it's rightful place on the front pages. Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Morton!

Graham Greene - A Little Place Off The Edgware Road: North West London, 1939. Craven passes an afternoon in the decrepit little theatre in Culpar Road. the cinema is almost empty, but still a stranger takes the seat next to him and sporadically interrupts the film with a commentary on the Bayswater murder, a subject about which he seems worryingly well informed. His hand brushes against Craven's - it is wet and sticky. After the film, Craven telephones the police. They already have the killer in custody, but the victim's corpse has disappeared.

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Patricia Moyes - The Most Hated Man in London: Short, straightforward whodunnit. Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett identifies which of four candidates did for Max Scotland, moneylender and blackmailer, with a poker.

Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu and the Frightened Redhead: (This Week, 1st Feb. 1959). "Curiously, Rohmer's original title for this account of the Devil Doctor's evil schemes was to have been Secret of the Flying Saucer," explains the editor. Having read the story, there is no "curious" about it. Dr. Bruce Garfield is in London to showcase a working model of his 'interplanetary vehicle,' or flying saucer. Of course, Fu Manchu, master of anti-gravity, has his own, vastly superior machine, though it never hurts to check out the opposition. Nayland Smith, sensing the old enemy is up to something, returns from Hong Kong to put a spanner in hise works! The frightened redhead is Pat Merton, Garfield's girlfriend, who is drugged, briefly kidnapped, then released unharmed by the evil mastermind - he even has a minion return her home in a Limo. Rohmer confirms that flying saucers are a reality, though there is no need to fret over little green men, Dr. Who, the Alien, the Cthulhu Mythos or any of the rest. Those craft sighted to date are either the work of Fu Manchu or Dr. Garfield.

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Gerald Kersh - Karmesin the Murderer: (The People , 24 Dec. 1944, as Inscrutable Providence ). " A man cannot run away from his destiny." As a rule, master criminal Karmesin disapproves of murder, but he makes an exception in the case of Skobeleff, a particularly despicable blackmailer who takes sick pleasure in tormenting his victims.

Allan Prior - The Day Lucky's Luck Ran Out: What became of Lord Lucan, who vanished from his Belgravia home on the night of 7th November 1974 following the brutal murder of Sandra Rivett, the nanny to his children? Something horrible involving plastic surgery and fraternising with Nazi war criminals, according to this story. Haining claims story was first published in the Daily Mail to mark the seventh anniversary of his Lordship's disappearance.

Ruth Rendell - People Don't Do Such Things: (The Fallen Curtain, 1976). Our narrator, a very boring accountant, makes elementary mistake of introducing wife Gwendolen to top client, Reeve Baker, a charismatic, massively successful historical novelist, notorious womaniser and all-round shit. Betrayal, murder, and the perfect fit up.