Another of Wilkie Collins's "secret journals"-exciting accounts of his crime solving adventures with Charles Dickens-has been "found and edited" by William J. Palmer.The Dons and Mr. Dickens tells a fascinating story of political intrigue and a secret society at one of England's most distinguished institutions, Oxford University.On a dank and dreary November evening, Inspector William Field summons Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens to a crime scene in London's notorious Chinese opium district.When the two arrive in the seedy neighborhood, they learn that a man has been murdered-and the victim is none other than an Oxford history don.Eager to escape the drudgery of a London winter, the two amateur detectives willingly accept Inspector Field's orders to travel on the new railway line to Oxford, where Collins was once a student, to conduct an undercover investigation.Once in Oxford, they enlist the help of Collins's old schoolmate, Charles Dodgson, a brilliant mind on the verge of becoming the youngest don in Oxford's history.Together, they encounter a complex conspiracy punctuated by murder, political radicalism, and revenge.Atmospheric and packed with authentic period detail, The Dons and Mr. Dickens is sure to delight fans of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens and lovers of all things Victorian.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Authentic "Fictional History" from popular mystery scholar,
By "witherspoon" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Dons and Mr Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot (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.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very clever who done it,
This review is from: The Dons and Mr Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot (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
3.0 out of 5 stars
You'll need a sturdy rope to suspend your belief,
By
This review is from: The Dons and Mr Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot (Hardcover)
It was a fun read, but seemed to me to fall apart completely in the end. When asked to explain the motivation for some implausible actions by the culprit, the best the detective can come up with are some lame suggestions and the admission that, "who knows 'ow 'is mind was racin'". Who indeed.
And there was a character who was apparently thrown in simply because he had been in the earlier books as he serves no purpose in this one other than to help explain some of the workings of early train service. A good bit of this sort of thing in the book. This is the only book I have read in this series. Not too bad if you are looking for a quick read and like spot-the-allusions. A disappointment if you were expecting a mystery.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
