The child in question is 15-year-old Paul Giacomin, a very convincing drawn character, who is totally neglected by his parents. This time out, Spenser gets involved in what initially appears to be a routine child custody case, but which quickly becomes complicated and dangerous. Parker's 'Early Autumn,' the seventh novel featuring the private eye Spenser. This most recent attempt is the best, not because of the solution it offers, but because Leon Garfield - who took on the formidable task of completing this novel - has managed to so accurately recreate Dicken's style, sensibility, and sense of humor.Ī great deal of humor, albeit of a different sort, is found in Robert B. Many solutions to Dicken's unfinished mystery have been offered over the last 111 years by those interested in Droodiana. He solves the case by means of ruses borrowed from Shakesperian drama that cause the murderer to trap himself.

Then the principal suspect in the murder, Neville Landless, is himself murdered.Įnter Dick Datchery, an ex-actor turned detective, who might be described as the mid-Victorian equivalent of the television detective, Colombo. Drood's uncle, John Jasper, thinks Edwin has been murdered, but no body can be found.

The novel's plot is simple: Edwin Drood disappears shortly after he and Miss Rosa Bud terminated their engagement. What happened to Edwin Drood? Was he murdered? If so, by whom? Or did he simply go off on his own after he and his fiancee broke off their engagement? Unfortunately, no one can ever know exactly what happened, for Charles Dickens died after he had finished the first six of 12 installments of 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.'

The mysterious case of edwin drood