John Jasper's Secret

This is a continuation of Dickens's uncompleted Mystery of Edwin Drood, published a year or two after the great author's death in six monthly instalments, just as was planned for the original novel. While I thought it lacked much of Dickens's sparkle, there were some interesting new idiosyncratic characters that might have come from his pen, such as the invalid boy Crawshe. The novel gives a very vivid and stark portrayal of Jasper's opium addiction, especially in chapter 24. The resolution of the story involves Helena Landless disguising herself as a man to penetrate the opium den; and Edwin Drood turns up alive near the end, having been in Egypt, so there was no murder anyway. There are also back stories provided for relatively minor characters such as Durdles and the Deputy. Overall, not brilliant, but worth a read if you have read the, in my view, underrated first half. ( )