The Penguin Book of Victorian Villainies: The Great Tontine; The Rome Express; In the Fog; The Beetle

715 pp. The Great Tontine, considered to be Hawley Smart's best book, concerns the unforeseen dangers of trying to make money in a lottery. Arthur Griffiths made a special study of the French police, and his sardonic amusement over their methods is evident in the classic train thriller The Rome Express. In the Fog, Richard Harding Davis's ingeniously plotted novel, is one of the very best accounts of foggy Victorian London. Haunted by figures of strange horror, Richard Marsh's The Beetle sheds fascinating sidelights on forgotten aspects of the Vicorian age.