Customer Reviews

The Charles Dickens Murders: A Beth Austin Mystery (Beth Austin Mysteries)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I confess, I was first attracted to this novel because of the title. I had not read an Edith Skom book before but am interested in Dickens as well as mysteries. I am very glad I picked it up and can see now I will have to go back and purchase the other two novels by Skom!

The narrative skips about in time some as we spend the first half of the novel living the story of the past (where/when the murder takes place) and then spend the second half with the protagonist as she attempts to solve the mystery. The skipping around in time was not difficult to follow and was actually a refreshing approach to telling the tale.

The characters were realistic and the plot was not at all predictable. At one point, one of the characters compares their situation with the plot of Agatha Christie's classic "Ten Little Indians" (also called "And Then There Were None"). Coincidentally, I had read that book, as well, only last month and thought the comparisons valid.

Enjoy this book, while I am out looking for others by the same author!

Having read her other books, I had actively looked for the appearance of a new book by this author. However, I was a bit disappointed with The Charles Dickens Murders.

For one thing, I never felt that comfortable with the constant time shifts Skom uses to present the mystery, an unsolved murder that occurred when the mother of Skom's sleuth was a college student. Also, I don't know whether it was because there were perhaps too many characters, or whether it was that almost all of them were portrayed as somewhat unattractive people, but when I reached the end and learned whodunnit and why, I found I couldn't really care all that much. Smaller complaints include a romantic coincidence that was too hard to see as anything but a literary device, and an evil pursuer who showed up with very little build-up and then quickly gave up trying to pursue our heroine after one try, OK, maybe one and a half tries. It hardly seemed worth the effort.

Due to my enjoyment of Skom's earlier books I'll still look forward to her next novel, but I thought this one was a bit underdeveloped.

Laurie Austin admits to her daughter, Beth, that in the late 1940's, she was involved in a love triangle and unsolved murder when she attended Midwestern University. Beth, an English professor at the same university, is thoroughly fascinated with her mother's tale, especially the claim that the killing will remain unsolved forever. Since she has had some success in solving mysteries (see THE GEORGE ELIOT MURDERS and THE MARK TWAIN MURDERS), Beth decides to investigate.

Beth begins by looking up her mother's dorm pals, The Fourth Floor Gang. To her surprise, Beth learns that one of the women, was recently murdered in Manhattan, which leads Beth into a second inquiry. Using references from Dickens' BLEAK HOUSE and THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, Beth begins to find a literary pattern to the two five-decade apart murders.

One of life's most difficult situations is to wait for an Edith Skom novel. Though they are several years apart (three novels in almost a decade), they are all great. This time the talented author uses Dickens as a base to paint a masterpiece that will delight readers of cerebral murder mysteries. Her current work, THE CHARLES DICKENS MURDERS, is another clever winner by a great writer, who has made the Austin mysteries some of the best female amateur sleuth novels ever written.

Harriet Klausner

This is the first book of hers that I have read. I would probably not go out of my way to pick up another. Beth is a likeable character and I was somewhat engaged by the characters and story; however, the plot seemed a little thin and simplistic. The ease with which she located all of the key players after years of being out of touch was a bit unrealistic.

It was an excellent mystery. I was almost positive I knew who did it, and was shocked at the end to find out I was wrong. I was also sad when I finished and remembered that the characters are not real. I felt like I personally knew them all, and when someone was murdedred I felt as if I had lost a good friend. I would recomend it to everyone.

This is the first book of Edith Skom's that I have read. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the book moves from present to past and back to the present again by way of Professor Beth Austin's mother relating a murder mystery that happened during her own college years. The reason is Professor Austin's choice of Dickens' unfinished novel, Edwin Drood, for her English class which Beth's mother likens to the unsolved murder of years ago.

I was ecstatic when I bought the newest Edith Skom mystery, and the book lived up to my great expectations (no pun intended!) Skom continues to write entertaining and clever mysteries starring Beth Austin as the gumshoe and, as usual, a whole slew of fascinating and colorful characters. Don't miss out on this book!

Edith Skom is one of the very best of the present mystery writers. Literate, with appropriate touches of humor, she draws new characters in every book with a sure hand, full of variety, while keeping her major continuing character, English professor Beth Austin consistently interesting. This was, in my opinion. the best of the three novels Ms. Skom has written, with riveting suspense and a complex, but lucidly-explained final accounting.

My only adverse reaction is Beth's apparently falling into bed with a different man in each book. Although her affairs are handled with delicacy, I find the implications of promiscuity in this age of AIDS unsavory and ratherhard to believe of so intelligent a woman.

Edith Skom once again authors an outstanding book. Full of mixtures of realism, horror, humor, romance and more, Skom captures a completely different story and tells it as though she were teaching an English course on Great Books.

Sharing the same birthday with Dickens made me buy this piece of claptrap. This was the worst book I have ever read & that includes Romance books, which I deplore. The characters were nonentities, the story was sheer boredom & I couldn't wait for the ending. My husband & I read this together & gagged mightily. Any author who uses more than 7 one page chapters should be banned.