Snow Hill

Snow Hill
Mark Sanderson

Mark Sanderson does for the 30s what Jake Arnott did for 60s London – vividly revealing its hidden underworld in an unforgettably gripping crime novel."Friday, 18 December, 1936. I went to my funeral this morning…"So begins the diary of John Steadman, an ambitious young journalist in London. When he gets a tip-off about a murdered policeman, he thinks he's found his scoop. Trouble is, no-one else seems to know anything about it… or they're not telling.Then John finds someone willing to talk. At least, someone who was. Now they're hanging from a meat hook in a refrigerated locker and John's on the verge of a front-page scandal that will make or break his career. But to get to the heart of this dark story, he must first go undercover. Six feet undercover, to be precise…Based on a shocking true story, Snow Hill vividly brings to life a London you never knew about – an underworld that doesn't officially exist and until now has never been documented.

Snow Hill

Mark Sanderson

HarperCollinsPublishers

In memory of Drew Morgan (1964-1994)

Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,

And bear their trophies with them as they go:

Filths of all hues and odour, seem to tell

What street they sail’d from, by their sight and smell.

They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,

From Smithfield to St ’Pulchre’s shape their course;

And in huge confluence join’d at Snow Hill ridge,

Fall from the conduit prone to Holborn Bridge,

Sweepings from butchers’ stalls, dung, guts and blood,

Drown’d puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,

Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood…

From A Description of a City Shower

Jonathan Swift, October 1710

Table of Contents

Cover (#ub6cb91b1-82e5-5c05-acea-e886cef9b9b1)

Title Page (#u147275d2-14ec-5092-be90-e844a3c8a213)

Dedication (#u6dfd26ba-634e-5d58-93d0-42aabec777eb)

Epigraph (#u5f352258-8b89-55fe-a783-1130c06f3cc2)

Foreword (#u74056a09-40ec-5f3f-9d96-a5e9549fd0b1)

Part One: Smithfield (#u1e0f7199-0953-5efd-bb71-2dbcd567bac1)

Chapter One (#ubd4f7660-eeb0-5a39-831e-05a2aa4e0528)

Chapter Two (#ua0613273-e045-5a0e-9c9f-ca6a0c3e5e30)

Chapter Three (#ua7c49b5e-146c-55ec-95b1-2cae4996d1e9)

Chapter Four (#uedaea68e-edd0-5eaa-b01c-4d81d60e83d1)

Chapter Five (#ue53ae3f0-f896-5d4f-8e63-915f93cef953)

Chapter Six (#u46c03205-08bc-5107-9471-02394019ac0d)

Chapter Seven (#u3137923f-0b81-5087-97f2-8f4ceb5ab577)

Chapter Eight (#u58a7d533-1628-537b-a7e1-407b86350577)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two: Honey Lane (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three: Snow Hill (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)