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
Rating: 
Summary: The Plot Thickens..
Review: The temptation to finish the tale seems irresistible. In the beginning, everything seems to lead toward a predictable solution - but then the plot thickens. After some digressions that shrewdly delay the action and raise the level of suspense, and after some florid editorializing (e.g.,on professional philanthropy, on female intuition vs. male obtuseness, etc.) Dickens introduces some new characters, and the mystery deepens: Who is Datchery? Is he one of the previous players in disguise, or a Sherlock Holmes-like figure? Who is Tartar? What is Bazzard up to? What does the opium dealer know or suspect? Who is the "fellow traveller"? Did Jasper murder (or try and fail to murder) Drood - or did he commit the deed only in an opium dream?
My own hunch is that Drood is not dead. There is no body - at least not yet; and it would seem so much more like Dickens to have a man given up for dead re-emerge triumphantly after many trials and tribulations, and after much dissimulating on the part of characters "in the know" (cf."Our Mutual Friend"). But since we don't know what Dickens planned, we are free to spin our own yarn and weave our own tapestry. Isn't that a lot more fun?
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet Torment for Mystery Lovers
Review: This novel has stayed on my mind ever since I read it. It's so frustrating that Dickens died before completing this novel. On the other hand, the fact that this classic British mystery was never finished has created a great opportunity for literary critics and mystery lovers alike to try to solve the mystery for themselves. We'll never know who Dickens really had in mind as the murderer, or if indeed there was a murder after all. That's a huge loss. But it's a great ride for readers to try to make up their own minds. I still haven't made up my mind about who did it. Sure, there is a very obvious suspect in Jasper, but that doesn't mean Dickens thought he did it. Some people have speculated that Dickens wrote this novel as a tribute to his friend Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," so perhaps the opium addiction would have played a huge part in the mystery. It's even possible that Dickens saw a bit of himself in Jasper's tortured love life because of the way it paralleled his own life. After all, Cloisterham is supposed to be based on Dickens' Rochester. Then again, just because Dickens sympathized with someone, that doesn't mean that character was innocent, either, does it? Now you see why this story continues to torment mystery lovers. Like any other Dickens novel, this one has lots of memorable characters, from the suspicious and tormented Jasper to the Reverend Crisparkle to Princess Puffer. And of course, the enigmatic Datchery. The gravedigger and his obnoxious but perceptive boy assistant provide both Dickensian eccentric characters and possible clues. The power of this book even today is clear in the way it inspired an award-winning Broadway musical where the audience got to solve the mystery on their own. (By the way, 1935 movie with Claude Rains was good, but some of the main characters were cut out, and others seemed little like the characters in the book, even if they were fine actors.) Anne M. Marble
All About Romance and Holly Lisle's Forward Motion Writing Community
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, this one
Review: This was a slightly unusual novel for Dickens, a bit more dark, serious, and short like "Great Expectations" had been, with the previously unused topics of drug use, orientalism, and the church making appearances. It is of course his last and unfinished novel, though as the introduction and notes of the excellent Penguin edition make clear, there is little doubt about how it might have proceeded, and it's not so much a "mystery" novel as we have come to understand the term. For heaven's sake, don't get some edition that has been "finished" by someone else. What we have here is the dark work of a mature stylist, who still has the gifts of comedy and character. The obsessive nature of Jasper's love mirrors the character of Bradley Headstone in "Our Mutual Friend."
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