Hell Is a City is a 1954 crime novel by the British writer Maurice Procter.

[1] It was the first in a series featuring Chief Inspector Harry Martineau, set in the Northern industrial city of Granchester.

It takes the form of a police procedural, and marked a transition away from the traditional Golden Age detective novel.

[2] Published by Hutchinson, it was released in the United States by Harper the same year under the alternative title Somewhere in This City.

[3] In 1960 the novel was adapted into a British film of the same title directed by Val Guest and starring Stanley Baker, John Crawford and Donald Pleasence.