Charles Dickens was one of the great pioneers of detective fiction. While the larger-than-life characters in his novels have settled themselves in the public imagination, his detectives have had a profound effect on the development of crime fiction, and Dickens is now seen as the first major publicist for the police detective. In Hunted Down, Peter Haining has assembled a fascinating selection of Dicken's detective stories. Added to these are extracts from the novels in which the men of the law make their mark, including Mr Nadgett from Martin Chuzzlewit , the first serious detective in an English novel, and Inspector Bucket from Bleak House.
