This is the first in a series of whodunnits featuring as sleuth a young Charles Dickens, investigating the sudden death of a young lady in a house neighbouring that of his employer Morning Chronicle editor George Hogarth, whose daughter Kate he is courting. The plot turns out to involve all manner of goings on involving families at all levels of society, and including the theatre, a medium in which Dickens saw his future at this time, and running not only to murder, but also suicide and poisonous mushrooms. I found some of the leaps of logic a bit hard to swallow, and I didn't really find Dickens credible as a sleuth, though his growing closeness with Kate, his future wife and mother of his ten children, was sensitively portrayed within the constraints of early 19th century courtship. At this point in his life Dickens is still 22 going on 23 and a parliamentary reporter with aspirations of writing short pieces of fiction, that would later be collected into Sketches with Boz. He speculates at one point that "perhaps he would become a famous solicitor, or a playwright with a theatrical run so outstanding that his play would travel through the provinces for years to come". But he is a long way off being a famous and best-selling writer of novels, for which he says "I don't know when I would find the time". He reflects at the end that his experiences in solving the murders "were exciting enough to turn into a novel. Though he had too much imagination to ever take anything direct from life". Despite the novel's title, this has nothing in common with Dickens's Tale of Two Cities, except for some of the characters having lived in France earlier in their lives, a minor character called Dr Manette, and a reflection by Dickens at the end to his future wife that "It is a far, far better idea for us to have experienced this together, than I would ever have dreamed". Overall, I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I expected from the start of the novel, but will pursue the series. ( )

This is much better than book 4, 'The Pickwick Murders'. Dickens played the main detective role, much different than the Pickwick story. It also did a good job conveying a sense of London life in the 1830s. Well paced. After this one, I would try another Dickens mystery. ( )

On the evening of 6th January 1835, Charles Dickens is having tea with the Hogarth family when a scream is heard. Going to the neighbour's house they find an ill Miss Christiana Lugoson. Who unfortunately by morning will be dead. Suspiciously on the anniversary of a previous death last year. Dickens feels that he must investigate and is helped in his endeavours by Catherine Hogarth.
An enjoyable and interesting mystery with thankfully not too much emphasis on romance. The characters were a likeable group who hopefully will turn up in the next book.
A NetGalley Book ( )