The Droodists have arrived in Dickens Junction. Local bookstore owner Simon Alastair has his hands full in his role as co-chair for the latest convention honoring Charles Dickens's uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. A movie star, a pesky blogger, dueling scholars, a stage hypnotist, and an old family friend (among others) all have claims on Simon's time. In addition, some Droodists are clearly more-or less-than they appear, including a mysterious young man by the improbable name of Edwin Drood. When a priceless ring and a rare Dickensian artifact go missing, Simon and his reporter-partner Zach Benjamin learn that someone will do anything-including murder-to obtain an object of desire. The Edwin Drood Murders is the new entry in the Dickens Junction mystery series that began with The Christmas Carol Murders, a book that New York Times thriller writer Chelsea Cain called "a love letter to both Dickens and to the small town amateur detectives who've kept the peace in hamlets from River Heights to Cabot Cove."

Five studies on Dicken's "Edwin Drood."

In his most enthralling novel yet, the critically acclaimed author Matthew Pearl reopens one of literary history’s greatest mysteries. The Last Dickens is a tale filled with the dazzling twists and turns, the unerring period details, and the meticulous research that thrilled readers of the bestsellers The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow. Boston, 1870. When news of Charles Dickens’s untimely death reaches the office of his struggling American publisher, Fields & Osgood, partner James Osgood sends his trusted clerk Daniel Sand to await the arrival of Dickens’s unfinished novel. But when Daniel’s body is discovered by the docks and the manuscript is nowhere to be found, Osgood must embark on a transatlantic quest to unearth the novel that he hopes will save his venerable business and reveal Daniel’s killer. Danger and intrigue abound on the journey to England, for which Osgood has chosen Rebecca Sand, Daniel’s older sister, to assist him. As they attempt to uncover Dickens’s final mystery, Osgood and Rebecca find themselves racing the clock through a dangerous web of literary lions and drug dealers, sadistic thugs and blue bloods, and competing members of Dickens’s inner circle. They soon realize that understanding Dickens’s lost ending is a matter of life and death, and the hidden key to stopping a murderous mastermind.

It's the holiday season in Dickens Junction, Oregon. Local bookstore owner Simon Alastair is getting ready for the community's annual celebration of Charles Dickens's well-known story. But when a mysterious stranger shows up in the Junction and is murdered hours later, Simon begins to suspect that his little community has been targeted for destruction by a shadowy organization. With the support of Zach, a dashing young magazine reporter, Simon decides to investigate the crime himself. When a second murder follows, Simon must confront the worst question of all: which of his friends and business associates is a ruthless murderer? The Christmas Carol Murders is the first of an exciting new cozy mystery series combining the atmosphere of a classic Agatha Christie puzzle, the deft touch of Charlotte MacLeod, a hint of Oscar Wilde's humor, and the literary spirit of the great Charles Dickens.

There's a murderer on the loose—but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home—unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong. Julie Berry's The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.

Edith Skom returns, better than ever, with another clever tale of English professor and amateur sleuth Beth Austin. With her unique ability to twist a plot with humor, style, and flair, Skom is certain to meet her fans' great expectations. "The Charles Dickens Murders is perfect for readers who enjoy the books of Amanda Cross and Elizabeth Peters. On a sweltering summer night, a woman is murdered in her hospital bed in New York City. Almost a thousand miles away, Midwestern University professor Beth Austin is leading a class through the complete works of Charles Dickens. The framework that connects this tale of two cities begins to unfold when Beth learns something she never could have imagined: forty years ago, her mother was involved in a treacherous love triangle at the University of Chicago. Disturbed by her mother's past of painful lies, secrets, and murder, Beth is determined to find out the truth-no matter the cost. As she delves into the story of the man her mother loved and her rival for his affections, Beth discovers that these old deadly secrets may well destroy her own dreams for the future. Edith Skom is the author of "The Mark Twain Murders and "The George Eliot Murders and has been nominated for the Agatha, Macavity, and the Anthony Award. She lives outside of Chicago, Illinois, where she is a lecturer at Northwestern University.

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. originally published in 1870.Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium addict, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to one another. Later Drood disappears under mysterious circumstances."

"When Charles Dickens died having completed only half of his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, readers worldwide were left with one of the greatest literary mysteries of all time. What happened to Edwin Drood? Did he simply disappear or was he murdered? The Return of Edwin Drood offers a tantalizing theory. A decade has passed since Drood's disappearance and presumed death. Now he suddenly reappears. He has been living in America where he has gradually overcome amnesia brought on by a savage attack 10 years earlier. Drood returns to his home in England to reclaim his life and property, to rekindle his relationship with the woman with whom he was once in love, and to discover the identity of the assailant who stole 10 years of his life. With the help of world-renowned illusionist Madame Robert, Drood sets into motion an elaborate plan to discover the assailant's identity and to force a confession."--Back cover.

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