LONDON HAD SHERLOCK HOLMES.

THE DARK ALLEYS OF EDINBURGH HAD INSPECTOR McLEVY.

1. The streets of Edinburgh seethe with anarchy as two gangs of students rival each other in wild exploits. After a pitched battle between them, an old woman is found savagely battered to death in Leith Harbour.

Enter the Thieftaker - Inspector Jame McLevy. With Constable Mulholland at his side, he scours the low dives of the waterfront and then sees the tendrils of the case spread to more respectable nooks and crannies.

When the inspector encounters Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in the city to bury his deceased father, the two recognise each other as fellow travellers, observers of the dark side of human nature and both hopeless insomniacs.

Glimpses of the murderer indicate a slender, androgynous figure with a silver cane, which is used to lethal effect. A dancing killer non unlike Mr Edward Hyde.