Midnight. A lonely Old Baily courtyard. The dead body of a stranger-a prosperous looking, well dressed, elderly man is found in Old Bailey Lane, London. This is England's ancient Inn of Court where barristers were traditionally apprenticed and carried on their work. Old Bailey is just a few minutes walk away from busy Fleet Street and the Thames Embankment. In the dead man's pocket is a piece of paper with the name and address of a young barrister. One of the first people to reach the crime scene is the investigative reporter, Phil Parma, who writes for a leading London newspaper, The Guardian. Parma is puzzled. Why would such a person be wandering about here at this hour? This extraordinary discovery draws Parma into a labyrinthine web of intrigue, murder and crime in high places. The Old Bailey Murder is also full of interesting nuggets of information and ambiance that evoke the London of 1956. It is an early example of the "procedural" crime story, where the facts become available to the reader in a logical sequence yet the identity of the criminal is kept hidden.