Review & Blog Tour: The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl (plus a Giveaway!)

In 1870 American publishing firms raced to obtain copies of new European books. The copyright laws did not stretch to international works, so there was no regulation prohibiting a competing firm from printing any book. There was great competition amongst the big publishing firms to be the first to print popular new works.

When Charles Dickens died suddenly on June 9, 1870 he was only half finished with the book that would be his last: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His American publishing house, the Boston firm of Fields, Osgood & Co, is anxiously awaiting the first half of the book to be delivered by ship. Young Daniel Sand, the assistant who was sent to the dock to pick up the pages, is killed on his way back to the offices. His death looks like an opium overdose, though his sister Rebecca, who also works at the company, knows that he was no addict.

The pages are replaced fairly easily, but Fields and Osgood both know that rival firm Harper & Brothers is breathing down their necks and will publish the first half of the book themselves as soon as the six installments comprising the first half of the book are published. The author's death means that the final six installments will never be written. Then they are inspired by a fantastic idea. If they go to England perhaps they can learn something about what the ending of the novel would have been. Armed with this information, Fields, Osgood & Co. would be in the enviable position of having exclusive content and would be assured of a bestseller, something their struggling firm badly needs.

The Great Charles Dickens, aka Chief, Inimitable, Boz

Originally, Fields was to have made the trip as senior partner. But he decides to send young James Osgood instead, along with Rebecca Sand as secretary. James is attacked on the ship going to London. The culprit, a swarthy fellow with a deadly walking stick, is captured and held in the ship's hold. Before they dock in England, though, the fellow has inexplicably escaped.

They have not seen the last of him. James and Rebecca take rooms at the inn across from Dickens' home, Gadshill Place. They have permission from the family to execute a search of the author's papers, though no one has any idea what the author's plans were for the last half of the novel. They find a few tiny clues, but not even the Queen of England was told how the book would end (Dickens offered to tell her, but she preferred to wait and read the installments with the rest of the British public).

As their search widens, they encounter more strange and eccentric people while following the twisting trail of Edwin Drood. Their time is running out, the last of the six installments will soon be published and they will have nothing to add to the final published book. Desperate to succeed, James accompanies a lunatic into London's violent opium dens, hoping to find more information...if he survives.

I really loved this fascinating mystery. It has everything, from a eye-opening look at the publishing industry of the period, both in America and England, to an equally hair raising lesson in the opium industry. I had no idea that whole areas of India were commanded by the ruling British government to grow nothing but poppies for the development of opium. Nothing else could be grown, not even food, so whole villages starved as a result.

The characters in the book are equally interesting (many of them were, of course, actual people), vividly drawn and so true to life that I sometimes felt I was reading non-fiction - though real life is seldom as action-packed as this book! Matthew Pearl has all his historical facts right and he blends them artfully into an absorbing, fast-paced thriller of a tale. Go and get The Last Dickens...you won't be disappointed!

I received this book courtesy of the publisher as part of the TLC Book Tour. To see the rest of the stops on the tour, click here. For more information about Matthew Pearl and his fantastic historical novels, please visit his website.

The Last Dickens is published by Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6656-8

The publisher has provided an extra copy for this giveaway! To enter, leave me a comment here. The winner must have a US or Canada mailing address and will be drawn at random. Enter through midnight eastern on October 30th. Below are some ways for you to earn extra entries. Please leave ONE comment for each thing you choose to do. You can combine your comments together if you like but please do not leave multiple comments for the same extra thing (for example, one comment if you fave at Technorati or subscribe via Feedburner, not three). Anyone who already follows, subscribes, or has faved at Technorati still gets the extras, just mention it in your comment! Thank you for visiting and entering!

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