It Happened in Soho is one of the most important detective novels in the Arab world over the past ten years, having sold tens of thousands of copies, and readers still enjoy reading its details whenever they revisit it.

It Happened in Soho is based on true events of organized crime that took place in the Soho district of London.

The story blends detective and romantic events, requiring the author to travel extensively, take hundreds of photographs, and meet dozens of witnesses to recount the events as they happened.

The novel's author, Fadwa Al-Tawil, says on the back of the book:

“The novel is based on real events. The (112) emergency calls are actually recorded police calls that I translated and rephrased. The names were changed, and some events were added to maintain the suspense element. I visited most of the locations where the novel’s events took place during my travels to London, specifically the famous Soho district and Hyde Park, where I took hundreds of photos that I used to provide the facts with the necessary details. There, I sat with homeless people in order to obtain evidence and confessions from which I could build the basis of the story. I examined many video interviews of the victims, websites, video clips, and documented reports to verify the accuracy of the information, until the results came out shocking.”