Journal Entry 1 by jennymidget from Bellbowrie, Queensland Australia on Thursday, August 26, 2010

Matthew Pearl reopens one of literary history's greatest mysteries in his most enthralling novel yet, a tale filled with the dazzling twists and turns, the unerring period details, and the meticulous research that thrilled readers of bestsellers The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow.

Boston, 1870. When news of Charles Dickens's untimely death reaches the office of his struggling American publisher, Fields & Osgood, partner James Osgood sends his trusted clerk Daniel Sand to await Dickens's unfinished novel-The Mystery of Edwin Drood. But when Daniel's body is discovered by the docks and the manuscript is nowhere to be found, Osgood must embark on a transatlantic quest to unearth the novel that will save his venerable business and reveal Daniel's killer.

Danger and intrigue abound on the journey, for which Osgood has chosen Rebecca Sand, Daniel's older sister, to help clear her brother's name and achieve their singular mission. As they attempt to uncover Dickens's final mystery, Osgood and Rebecca find themselves racing the clock through a dangerous web of literary lions and drug dealers, sadistic thugs and blue bloods, and competing members of the inner circle. They soon realize that understanding Dickens's lost ending to Edwin Drood is a matter of life and death, and the hidden key to stopping a murderous mastermind. 

Journal Entry 2 by jennymidget at Bellbowrie, Queensland Australia on Sunday, August 29, 2010

Really enjoyable - better than The Dante Club even. Osgood was a wonderful character, there was a great sense of suspense and menace, and I didn't guess the "villain" until only a few pages before he was revealed! This is a really rich mystery, and if nothing else it makes me want to go read some Dickens, which I haven't done in ages. (Dickens himself is, however, a big disappointment, basically because he's such a...well, "knob", basically!)

Off to the US via BookMooch.