The Case of the Pocket Diary found in the Snow

A quiet winter evening had sunk down upon the great city. The clock in the old clumsy church steeple of the factory district had not yet struck eight, when the side door of one of the large buildings opened and a man came out into the silent street.
It was Ludwig Amster, one of the workingmen in the factory, starting on his homeward way. It was not a pleasant road, this street along
the edge of the city. The town showed itself from its most disagreeable side here, with malodorous factories, rickety tenements, untidy open stretches and dumping grounds offensive both to eye and nostril. [...]
Reprint of the detective novel starring Joseph Muller, Secret Service detective of the Imperial Austrian police.