- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition edition (Oct 17 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 031226576X
- ISBN-13: 978-0312265762
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #870,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this historical mystery "lite," Wilkie Collins and his mentor, Charles Dickens, aided by Charles Dodgson, investigate the murder of one of Dodgson's fellow Oxford dons. As in other novels in this series (The Detective and Mr. Dickens, etc.), Dickens's mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan, plays a key roleDhere disguised as a barmaid at an Oxford pub, where she's planted in hopes she'll overhear members of the odd circle of dons that included the victim reveal some clue to his murder. Our heroes come to realize that these dons are involved in a neo-Gunpowder Plot, only possibly harmless, timed for Queen Victoria's annual Oxford visit. The author, a Dickens scholar, keeps the reader guessing the motives and the identity of the group's ringleader, while the jealous agonies that Dickens goes through as Ellen plays her often saucy part account for much of the fun in this "secret Victorian journal." Fun of a different sort is spotting the anachronisms. The year is 1853, yet Dodgson in a major scene uses "flash powder" to take a picture in the dark, decades before flash photography. Most egregious, however, is Mycroft Holmes, in a cameo role as a government agent, speaking of his "eccentric younger brother" the year before the great detective's birth. Some readers won't notice or care, but for the more literate, the prime audience for this type of mystery, such lapses only undermine the spell. An attractive period dust jacket is a plus.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In his series of Dickens mysteries (this is the fourth), Palmer uses the literary device of "discovering" a forgotten manuscript: he gives us the secret journals of novelist Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White, The Moon stone), in which Collins plays Boswell to his friend Dickens. Once again, Inspector Field of the Metropolitan London Protectives asks Dickens' help in crime solving. A gentleman, whose cravat identifies him as an Oxford man, has been murdered in an opium den. The Oxford connection allows the trio to consult Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), teaching fellow at Oxford, and to engage actress Ellen Ternan as a barmaid-spy in an Oxford pub. The plot expands into the nick-of-time unearthing of a conspiracy with explosive implications. Although the inclusion of Dickens and his sidekicks in these mysteries sometimes strains credulity, the vibrant Victorian social history and intriguing biographical details about Dickens are worth the occasional creakiness of the machinery. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palmer Strikes Again,
This review is from: DONS AND MR. DICKENS (Hardcover)
Very amusing. The Dons mentioned in the title, except for one now known MUCH better by his nom de plume, are appropriately corrupt/ineffectual, so gentle reader can safely trust that William J. Palmer has indeed been professing for many years, somehere, per the bio. Inspector Field is his usual gruff efficient sage self & the watch of Wilkie Collins, Cub Novelist, disappears promptly. An apprentice detective named Morse appears. One may predict that he will master his work, someday, plus enjoy his beer, ruefully, all around Oxford. Ellen Ternan, light of the life of late great Dickens, begins to materialize, participating as a character actress playing a lovely Irish barmaid snitch. Will she be ravished? Mr. Dickens is not sure he likes this role, much, but controls his inimitable self, barely. Petty deduction for gratuitous allusion, in French, but a good, even explosive, read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Authentic "Fictional History" from popular mystery scholar,
By "witherspoon" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: DONS AND MR. DICKENS (Hardcover)
It is quite evident in this latest addition to Palmer's stable of victorian mystery novels that the author enjoys an intimate knowledge of 19th century England in general and Oxford University specifically. Had I not read his Bio I would have believed that William Palmer was a "public school" boy raised in the UK. While somewhat less "bawdy" than his earlier contributions, Palmer nonetheless succeeds in incorporating the Dodgson character in to his standard Dickens/Collins partnership, and in the process delights us with even more details surrounding the "Sherlock Holmes type" of Opium prevalence during the period. All in all, this Christmas release is yet another credit to the numerous kudos earned by Palmer with previous books.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very clever who done it,
By
This review is from: DONS AND MR. DICKENS (Hardcover)
In 1853 London, Metropolitan Protective Inspector William Field asks Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to identify the corpse of a white man found in a nearby opium den. The tie that the victim wears tells Wilkie that the dead man is a member of Oxford. Another associate of the two writers, Charles Dodgson recognizes the deceased as a history don at Oxford.At the urging of Inspector Field, the three associates decide to investigate the murder of the don. Although they have worked previous cases, Dickens, Wilkie, and Dodgson remain writers/wannabe authors playing amateur sleuths. Their actions soon place their very lives and that of Dickens' mistress in danger from an unknown assailant. The fourth Dickens-Collins Victorian mystery is a clever who-done-it, populated by literary references and their associated footnotes. The story line is fun although the use of Victorian era dialect makes one wonder if Dickens is heading in the direction of Chaucer and Shakespeare, difficult to read without a translator. The plot belongs to the trio of writers as the audience sees a glimpse of them beyond the classroom and outside their novels. Harriet Klausner
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