Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) was a Hungarian-born British author, best known for her Scarlet Pimpernel novels. Her Teahouse Detective, who features in The Old Man in the Corner, was one of the first fictional sleuths created in response to the Sherlock Holmes stories' huge success.

Initially serialised in magazines, the stories in this collection were first published in book form in 1908 and have since been adapted for radio, television and film. Two more collections of Teahouse Detective mysteries are forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.