Murder by Ghostlight: Charles Dickens & Superintendent Jones Investigate (Charles Dickens Investigations, #3)

by J. C. Briggs

1850: When Charles Dickens discovers the corpse of an actor on the empty stage of a Manchester theatre Dickens himself becomes the number one suspect. But with the help of colleague and trusted friend Superintendent Jones of Bow Street the two set out to find the identity of the real murderer. The search takes them into the slums of Manchester and to the fog-bound streets of London, where some startling discoveries are made and Dickens’s life is threatened before this unusual case reaches its ultimate and thrilling climax.

• ISBN10: 0750969806
• ISBN13: 9780750969802
• Publish Date: 5 October 2016
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: The History Press Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Murder By Ghostlight is the third murder mystery featuring a fictionalized Charles Dickens solving crime in partnership with his friend Superintendent Sam Jones. Released 24th Jan 2019 by Sapere, it's 277 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a genuinely entertaining and well written historical mystery interwoven into a framework of historical fact. The dialogue and plotting are well paced and the setting (early Victorian Manchester) is enough of a departure from the almost de rigueur London to add another level of enjoyment for me. The characters are very well drawn and the plot is well paced. My only minor quibble with the characterizations is the slightly twee inclusion of secondary characters throughout the books who figure heavily into the historical Dickens' actual oeuvre. I don't doubt that Dickens used real people as inspirations for his characters - there's enough actual canonical documentation to prove that he did. I just found it distracting that one popped up every couple of chapters in this book.

Possibly worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library. This is a fun and worthwhile series especially for lovers of historical British crime fiction.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.