Compiled by Charles Dickens and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London.

Advised by her doctor to have a change of scene, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by the vacant 'house to let' opposite, she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy her curiosity, but it is only after repeated false starts - and by way of elaborate tales of lost men at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates - that they happen upon the truth.