Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) was a very successful chronicler of London low-life. His masterpiece was probably A Child of the Jago, a wonderful book. In the 1970s he was rediscovered thanks to Hugh Greene's Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. This, from 1897, is one of the many variants Morrison conjured up in 'rivalry' of Conan Doyle.
Horace Dorrington, of Dorrington and Hicks, in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. Dorrington is an inquiry agent in the same way that Holmes was a consulting detective. He is also, in the tradition of Jonathan Wild, a conman and a crook. Morrison has devised an ingenious way of disguising the fact that these were doubtless originally published as separate short stories in various periodicals. He begins with 'The Narrative of Mr James Rigby' in which a young Australian discovers the duplicity of Dorrington after escaping a fiendish death trap. He also discovers the titular deed box from which he reconstructs other crimes and cases, the first of which, 'The Case of Janisssary,' tells how Dorrington came into possession of the death trap and the couple who operate it.
For fans of the genre the collection is many-layered. James Rigby is almost certainly Australian in homage to Guy Boothby (1867-1905), an Australian come to London, who created Doctor Nikola, a super-criminal who in his day rivalled and even outstripped Holmes's arch-enemy Moriarty. In 'The Case of Mr Loftus Deacon the victim is an avid collector of oriental art, as was Morrison.
Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
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