Issue #0

The Last Dickens

Plot

"American publisher James R. Osgood has been expecting the arrival of the latest instalment of 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', now Dickens last work, and sends his trusted young clerk, Daniel Sand, to meet the shipment. When Daniel's body is found by the docks and the manuscript nowhere to be found, Osgood investigates. 1870. Charles Dickens is dead. The final instalment of his last manuscript has vanished. The script was last seen addressed to the publisher whose fortunes depend on it. Since its sudden disappearance the only clue to its whereabouts is a trail of brutal murders. With his livelihood - indeed his life - in jeopardy, Dickens' publisher sets out to unravel the mystery. The trail leads him from bustling West End theatres, through grimy East End backstreets, into the fug of illicit opium dens, as the crime he hopes to solve ensnares him. Review: "A plot packed full of incident, coincidences, devious twists and dramatic set pieces" * Daily Mail * "A Dickens of a mystery" * New York Daily News * "An immensely gifted author" * Dan Brown * "Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens is a tour-de-force . . . which grips the reader from harrowing start to tantalizing finish" * Jed Rubenfeld, author of The Interpretation of Murder * "An illuminating peep into a vanished world" -- James Urquhart, Financial Times.