On board, he's attacked by someone with an identical cane possessed by the person who stalked Daniel. In the meantime, Osgood sails from Boston to London accompanied by Daniel's sister, Rebecca. Bendall takes possession of Daniel's package and realizes immediately what it is, and how valuable it potentially is. A lawyer, Sylvanus Bendall, is nearby and tries to help, but can do nothing before Daniel dies. Daniel's death appears to be accidental, but he was fleeing from someone with a menacing cane, one with the head of a horned beast, when he's run down by an omnibus. This fictional literary mystery within a factual literary mystery is absolutely captivating. Before he leaves, though, Osgood is reminded by his partner Fields that the purpose of his trip is solving the mystery of the Edwin Drood manuscript, not to create a new mystery of his own making. Maybe he had told someone about the novel and how the mystery would end. Believing the package to be irrevocably lost, Osgood decides to go to London to determine if there might be other copies of the novel in Dickens' workroom. James Osgood has a few mindful questions: Who knew the package of installments was aboard the vessel? What could the thief gain by stealing the package? No one could publish the work as it would immediately be discovered. After he signs for it, but before he can deliver it, he is killed and the package disappears. A young man from the publishing company, Daniel Sand, was sent to accept delivery of the package at the wharf.

The final installments were en route from London to Boston when Dickens died.

Six of a twelve installments had already been printed. The publishers had been serializing the novel monthly in their trade magazine, anticipating a total of twelve installments.

Dickens had promised his publishers, Fields and Osgood in Boston, that the book would have a curious and new ending. Review: Matthew Pearl blends fact and fiction, and posits a plausible solution to mystery surrounding Charles Dickens' final, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood in The Last Dickens, the author's third suspense novel to feature historic literary figures.ĭickens' novel relates the story of Edwin Drood, an honest if sometimes disturbed young man, who vanishes after provoking the anger of his devious uncle.

Dickens novel the mystery of