Blood on the Strand (Thomas Chaloner Mysteries)

the long version

"Webb took a series of shortcuts - he had been born in the slums known as the Fleet Rookery, and knew the city like the back of his hand - and emerged near Ludgate. His fine shoes rubbed his soaked feel and he begain to swear aloud, waking the beggars asleep under the Fleet bridge. His knees ached, too, as they often did in wet weather. He reached the Strand, limping heavily now, and heard the bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields announce six o'clock; they had been wrong ever since a new-fangled chiming mechanism had been installed three months before. He heaved a sigh of relief when he recognised mighty Somerset House and its fabulous clusters of chimneys."--Jacket.