Rating: 
Summary: Unsolved mystery?
Review: I am inclined to agree with the majority who believe that the crime was in fact murder, and the culprit was in fact the one that Dickens points directly at. I don't think that this Dickens mystery was meant to be your typical mystery with the surprise ending, the culprit being the one you'd least suspect.If this had been a Mary Higgins Clark mystery, the culprit would have been the best dressed, safest looking man, and the red herring would have been the sleazy looking guy. But I just can't understand why Dickens would have wasted so much description and plot designed to turn us against the leading suspect, only to veer away onto another at the end. So, with my position being that there really is no big mystery to "who did it", where does the greatness of Dickens show itself in this book? The answer, as always in Dickens novels, is in the characters. We get to meet some hard-to-forget Dickens people, not the least of which is the Raskolnikov-like killer, an opium smoker who loves two people in his world and kills one of them so that he can possess the other. The missing chapters of the book would have given us the satisfaction of seeing just how the good guys win, and tying a bunch of loose ends together.
Rating:
Summary: Unsolved mystery?
Review: I am inclined to agree with the majority who believe that the crime was in fact murder, and the culprit was in fact the one that Dickens points directly at. I don't think that this Dickens mystery was meant to be your typical mystery with the surprise ending, the culprit being the one you'd least suspect. If this had been a Mary Higgins Clark mystery, the culprit would have been the best dressed, safest looking man, and the red herring would have been the sleazy looking guy. But I just can't understand why Dickens would have wasted so much description and plot designed to turn us against the leading suspect, only to veer away onto another at the end. So, with my position being that there really is no big mystery to "who did it", where does the greatness of Dickens show itself in this book? The answer, as always in Dickens novels, is in the characters. We get to meet some hard-to-forget Dickens people, not the least of which is the Raskolnikov-like killer, an opium smoker who loves two people in his world and kills one of them so that he can possess the other. The missing chapters of the book would have given us the satisfaction of seeing just how the good guys win, and tying a bunch of loose ends together.
Rating: 
Summary: Prepare to Be Frustrated!
Review: I say this not because the novel is bad -- it's actually quite good -- but because it was left unfinished; Dickens died while writing this novel. I was prepared to be frustrated that I would never know how the mystery was solved, but the novel ends before you really get to know what the mystery is! Edwin Drood disappears and is presumed dead, and Dickens makes it look as if a certain person is guilty of his murder. Of course, Dickens would never have been so obvious, so it has to be a red herring. In addition to the murder, a person who is obviously in disguise just barely appears on the scene before the story abruptly ends, leaving no clue as to who this person may be. The novel is well-written and intriguing, but without an ending, it's a little frustrating!
Rating:
Summary: Prepare to Be Frustrated!
Review: I say this not because the novel is bad -- it's actually quite good -- but because it was left unfinished; Dickens died while writing this novel. I was prepared to be frustrated that I would never know how the mystery was solved, but the novel ends before you really get to know what the mystery is! Edwin Drood disappears and is presumed dead, and Dickens makes it look as if a certain person is guilty of his murder. Of course, Dickens would never have been so obvious, so it has to be a red herring. In addition to the murder, a person who is obviously in disguise just barely appears on the scene before the story abruptly ends, leaving no clue as to who this person may be. The novel is well-written and intriguing, but without an ending, it's a little frustrating!
Rating: 
Summary: More mysterious every time
Review: I've read this several times and this time it seems even more haunting. It would have been a relatively short novel for Dickens even if he had finished it, and the fragment gives the impression of being very carefully planned. There are no unnecessary scenes. Every character seems to havea point. The cathedral town is vivid. I ince visted Rochester on acold day and it was quite eerie having lunch in a restaurant that was actually a house in the book. But who did it? This time I have noticed more clues. I am sure the answer is something like "The Moonstone". A murder committed under her influence of opium. Jasper seems to try the drug on Durdles (in the crypt) and on Neville and Edwin - who feel very strange after having wine with him. My money is on Neville being the killer - but under the influence of opium - so he actually does it, but Jasper is responsible. I assume Edwin ended up in the quicklime, but he could easily have escaped. It would be a bit daring to kill of an ionnocent character in a family novel. Jasper had wasted his time as Edwin does not want marry Rosa, so in the end I suspect Jasper would confess - but what would happen to Neville? Legally he would still be guilty, so I imagine he would go back to Ceylon. That would leave Rosa to marry Tartar and Crisparkle to marry Helena. Very neat. Oh, and then Bazzard would be Datchery (the black eyebrows...) But like some other good mysteries there is a strangeness about this book which is beyond the actual plot. Wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Dickens' Dying Words
Review: If Dickens had managed to finish this, it may have been yet another masterpiece. It is full of convincing characters, dark images, dark humour, and memorable passages. Through Jasper, we are able to see a side of Dickens himself. In one of Dickens' Christmas Books that takes place at an Inn, a character (who I suspect is a representation of Dickens) himself is jealous of a character named Edwin. Interestingly this repeats here. It is also interesting that after Dickens and his wife seperated, he fell in love with a younger woman. Jasper is attracted to a younger woman. It is also striking that in his dying written words, there are many images of graveyards. Even though Dickens died before he could finish this, it is an interesting work. There are many elements that make this book worth looking at. (Interesting dialogues, convincing characters, comical touches, good and dark images, a representation of Dickens himself, etc.) These are also Dickens' final words, and for that reason alone, this book deserves a special place in the museum of literature.
Rating:
Summary: Drood Is So Good
Review: It is a tribute to Charles Dickens' reputation that to this day this unfinished novel, a mystery no less, still garners such speculation as to who allegedly murdered Edwin Drood. There are organizations created for the sole purpose of analyzing the novel and to theorizing whom the culprit may have been, if indeed there really was a culprit. After all, only Drood's watch and his shirt pin are produced, not his body. As in all of Dickens' novels, the characterizations are the thing. You have the innocent young woman with the somewhat eccentric guardian and his Bob Cratchitlike assistant. There is the dark, possibly unfairly accused, but hot headed antagonist of Drood. Then there is Drood's brooding choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, who frequents opium dens, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in his seeking revenge. Durdles, the stone mason, and a somewhat weird character, provides some chilling comic relief in cemetery scenes with his stone throwing assistant. There are also the typical Dickensian characters, which includes a snooty older woman, a class conscious, spinsterish school mistress, and in a hilarious restaurant scene, an unappreciated, hard working "flying waiter" and a lazy, wise acre "stationary waiter." It is a shame that Dickens died before he could complete "Edwin Drood." What is here are the beginnings of an exploration of man's dual nature, a journey into "the heart of darkness" so to speak.
Rating:
Summary: Drood Is So Good
Review: It is a tribute to Charles Dickens' reputation that to this day this unfinished novel, a mystery no less, still garners such speculation as to who allegedly murdered Edwin Drood. There are organizations created for the sole purpose of analyzing the novel and to theorizing whom the culprit may have been, if indeed there really was a culprit. After all, only Drood's watch and his shirt pin are produced, not his body. As in all of Dickens' novels, the characterizations are the thing. You have the innocent young woman with the somewhat eccentric guardian and his Bob Cratchitlike assistant. There is the dark, possibly unfairly accused, but hot headed antagonist of Drood. Then there is Drood's brooding choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, who frequents opium dens, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in his seeking revenge. Durdles, the stone mason, and a somewhat weird character, provides some chilling comic relief in cemetery scenes with his stone throwing assistant. There are also the typical Dickensian characters, which includes a snooty older woman, a class conscious, spinsterish school mistress, and in a hilarious restaurant scene, an unappreciated, hard working "flying waiter" and a lazy, wise acre "stationary waiter." It is a shame that Dickens died before he could complete "Edwin Drood." What is here are the beginnings of an exploration of man's dual nature, a journey into "the heart of darkness" so to speak.
Rating:
Summary: The Game Is Afoot, But We'll Never Know the Outcome
Review: It is so strange to see a long, well-plotted novel suddenly come to a dead stop. (Of a projected twelve episodes, Dickens wrote six before his death.) The title character is either murdered or missing, and a large cast of characters in London and Cloisterham (Dickens's Rochester) are involved in their own way in discovering what happened to Edwin Drood. There is first of all John Jasper, an opium addict who suspiciously loves Drood's ex-fiancee; there is a nameless old woman who dealt him the opium who is trying to nail Jasper; there is a suspicious pile of quicklime Jasper notices during a late night stroll through the cathedral precincts; there is Durdles who knows all the secrets of the Cathedral of Cloisterham's underground burial chambers; there is the "deputy," a boy in the pay of several characters who has seen all the comings and goings; there are the Anglo-Indian Landless twins, one of whom developed a suspicious loathing for Drood; there is the lovely Rosebud, unwilling target of every man's affections; and we haven't even begun talking about Canon Crisparkle, Datchery, Tartar, and a host of other characters. All we know is that the game is afoot, but we'll never know the outcome. It would have been nice to know how Dickens tied together all these threads, but we can still enjoy THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD because -- wherever Dickens was heading with it -- it is very evidently the equal of his best works. Life is fleeting, and not all masterpieces are finished.
Rating:
Summary: Inconclusive
Review: It's extremely difficult to judge "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", the last of Charles Dickens's novels, merely due to the fact that it was left incomplete upon Dickens's death. Of course, this gives ample scope for useless speculation on how the novel might have ended - in particular what could have happened to Edwin Drood himself, who vanishes part way through what's left of the novel. I couldn't find enough in "Drood" either to condemn it, or to praise it. I was struck by the fact that despite it being the last of Dickens's works, it still bore the hallmarks of much of his earlier stuff - for example, sharp social cirticism (such as that directed against the philanthropist Mr Honeythunder) was swamped by the usual charicatures, such as the urchin "Deputy" and the obligatory gaggle of two-dimensional female characters. All this was achieved despite the plot being tighter than many of his other novels. Seemingly, Dickens was able to work to a narrower brief yet was unable to cast off completely the habits of his more voluminous novels. "Drood" might have promised much, but to expect another "Great Expectations" would be too much. G Rodgers
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