The Case of the Henrietta Street Manuscript

A famous novelist's only manuscript is stolen from a Henrietta Street publisher's locked drawer. The publisher reports it Friday morning. The novelist is at the door by eleven.

Section I

The Scene

Victorian newspaper-style illustration for The Case of the Henrietta Street Manuscript, set at Wilkinson & Co., publishers, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

Hand-drawn case map for The Case of the Henrietta Street Manuscript, showing Wilkinson & Co., publishers, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. — The ground in question.

Setting: Wilkinson & Co., publishers, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden
Time: Friday morning, second Friday of November 1893
Weather: Damp; a thin fog on the Strand; gas-lights still burning at nine
Atmosphere: A publisher's first-floor office over a print-seller's; tall sash windows; deep proof-presses against the inner wall; the smell of paper-dust and pipe-smoke.

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