Matthew Pearl

A fast paced look at the cut-throat (literally!) world of book publishing. The Boston publishing house of Fields & Osgood is rightfully proud that author Charles Dickens has chosen them as his US publisher. They sponsored his second US speaking tour to great success. They are in the midst of publishing in serial form his latest, 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', when word comes that Dickens has died of a stroke. The world is aghast at losing its most popular author. On only a slightly less show more distressing level, we possess only 6 out of 12 chapters of his last book. How is the mystery resolved? A step ahead of other piratical US publishers, James Osgood travels to England to see if he can find any remaining information as to the end of the mystery.

Pearl writes a gripping mystery, which also has resonance to our modern world. Watching the fanatic adoring crowds and stalkers harass Dickens on his US tour, we witness the nascency of celebrity worship. The big business of the opium trade with its underworld characters and impact on world economies presages our current 'War on Drugs'. The lack of copyright protection, and the 'bookaneers' who pirate the work of others mirrors present struggles over music swapping and Google books.

This book loving Bostonian loved this book and would recommend it to others of a similar bent. show less

I understand the criticism that the book goes many different directions and offers a lot of information. I, too, was looking for a deeper look into the souls of the principle players across their 14 month ordeal, but that was just my expectation. I like survival stories. BUT, I feel patience is rewarded when the various strands come together by the final chapters. It wasn't what I expected, but I thought it was masterful writing. It wasn't merely one family's saga but a big picture of show more connectedness in that time period in that sailing world. A good book, a lesson in surrendering expectations and patient reading. show less

A fascinating, ingenious novel. Pearl weaves a tale of mystery and intrigue involving a search for the last installments of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charles Dickens's unfinished novel. Fields and Osgood, his American publishers, have held off their competitors by being Dickens's publishing firm in North America. Before the protections of international copyright protocols unauthorized, pirate versions of popular English novels meant that those who could first produce legitimate versions show more had an advantage over knock-off competitors. Fields and Osgood, sensing that their profitable niche as the principal publishers of New England writers is waning, relied on their relationship with Dickens as a foundation of their business. Dickens's novels were wildly popular and were first released in chapter installments to his eager readership. When Dickens died halfway through Drood, all publishers were anxious to get their hands on the last six chapters, if they existed.

Ripley Osgood, a firm's partner, embarks on a search in the US and England to find the ending of the work, or to gain intelligence from anyone with whom Dickens might have shared his intended ending. His quest encounters many dangerous characters, including several who are double agents of a sort. The path of investigation takes him into scenes that appeared in Drood, especially involving the opium trade between England, China and America. There are violent encounters with enemies throughout and twists and turns at every stage.

Ripley is accompanied in his searches by Rebecca Sand, a bookkeeper of the firm. The firm has just taken the radical step of hiring female staff and the growing revelation of her competence as the story progresses is a preview of the rise of women in business. There is also a budding romance between Ripley and Rebecca told within the constraints and impediments associated with the Victorian era.

The tale of the search is intermingled with flashbacks of Dickens's final American lecture tour. Here too are many odd characters whose obsession with Dickens creates some havoc and much interest. Dickens's personality is revealed as is the nature of rabid following he engendered. Like other strands in the novel, the chapters about Dickens mix in real personages with fictional characters.

The novel emulates the style of Dickens novels in a very satisfying and clever manner. The plot slowly unfolds the lurk of mysterious forces influencing actions and events just outside the ken of the protagonists while leading to denouement that ties everything together.

This novel, like Pearl's other works -- The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow -- is a lot of fun. show less

This is an ingenious historical thriller from an author who has made his name with highly literary novels featuring key men of letters from the American 19th century addressing violent crime in Boston.

This new novel uses the birth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its rivalry with Harvard as the basis of an intriguing and complex scientific mystery. A team of students at MIT are the only people able to fully understand the wave of science-based terrorism striking Boston and show more use their newly acquired scientific methods and skills to understand the strange events happening across the city and ultimately to solve the mysteries of who and why.

The social mores of mid-19th century Boston are played out very well and that they seem strange to modern readers is a clear reflection of how society has changed in the last 150 years. Some of the relationships - the misogynist aristocrat-type and the proto-feminist chemist, for example - clearly telegraph their eventual untangling. In general, the characters ring true and the cast is just large and varied enough to keep the reader guessing to the end.

With a less literary bent than his earlier books, Pearl has produced a fresh and exciting novel that makes this a standout in the field. show less