The Pickwick Murders (A Dickens of a Crime)
Twenty-three-year-old Charles Dickens can hardly believe his luck in January 1836 when he receives an invitation to join the exclusive Lightning Club. Excited, he arrives at his induction, only to be plunged into a basement labyrinth, where he discovers the murdered body of Samuel Pickwick, the club’s president. Realizing he’s been set up, Dickens can do nothing but claim his innocence even as he’s booked into Newgate Prison to await trial.
Meanwhile, his fiancée, Katherine Hogarth, begins receiving a series of cryptic letters that send her chasing all over London and the surrounding countryside in hopes of finding and proving who framed Dickens. Each letter comes with a deadline for finding the next, and failure could mean injury—or worse—to her imprisoned fiancé.
Redmond adeptly immerses the reader into late-Georgian London in the dead of winter. From the infamous London fog to the types of food vendors common on the streets to the grimy, bleak world of Newgate Prison, the atmospheric details plunge the reader into Dickens’s world. The characters are all fully fleshed-out and unique, and readers will enjoy seeing several historical figures besides Dickens and Hogarth.
This book, however, is likely best enjoyed by readers familiar with the first three in the series. There are several unexplained references to events from previous novels which, while not vital, would have been helpful to understand. The unveiling of a villain in the last quarter of the novel falls a bit flat without knowing about this character, who must have appeared in previous books.
The Pickwick Murders is a solid, workmanlike book, but it will be best enjoyed as part of its series rather than as a standalone.
