The title of this collection has little to do with cobwebbed deed boxes in dusty offices peopled by crabbed clerks and elderly solicitors, but rather is a clever pun given its stories relate the doings of a criminal who poses as a detective.
The narrator is James Rigby, whose path once crossed that of Horace Dorrington.
The collection begins with The Narrative of Mr James Rigby, in which he explains how his path crossed with Dorrington's and how he, Rigby, came to be able to consult the latter's criminous files.
