Review: The Edwin Drood Murders (The Dickens Junction Mysteries) by Christopher Lord

Genre:
Mystery

Format:
E-Book

Publisher:
Harrison Thurman Books

Release Date:
September 2013

About the Book

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.

My Review

To be honest, I haven’t read anything by Charles Dickens since I was in school. So, I’m really not familiar with much of his work except for the popular books like The Christmas Carol. This author’s first book in this series was based on The Christmas Carol and I loved it - probably because I knew the story. I’m not so knowledgeable about Edwin Drood.

I enjoyed the mystery of this book, but it tended to be slow for me in some spots. I didn’t really follow the history of Edwin Drood but I thought the plot of this book was intriguing. There were two murders and two thefts that had me scratching my head.

This author’s creativity shines in the cast of characters he creates in this series. The main character, Simon Alastair, is our amateur sleuth who runs the bookshop in Dickens’ Junction. Simon and his partner Zach try to solve the murder, as they also try and solve their relationship issues. It adds to the drama of the story and leaves readers wondering where they end up by the time the next book rolls around.

This book is written in the tradition of an Agatha Christie mystery. All the suspects are gathered together at the end as the truth is revealed. The book had an old fashioned feel to it and made for a delightful whodunit story.

FTC Disclosure: The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.