Synopses & Reviews
Another of Wilkie Collins's "secret journals"-exciting accounts of his crime solving adventures with Charles Dickens-has been "found and edited" by William J. Palmer. The Dons and Mr. Dickens tells a fascinating story of political intrigue and a secret society at one of England's most distinguished institutions, Oxford University.
On a dank and dreary November evening, Inspector William Field summons Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens to a crime scene in London's notorious Chinese opium district. When the two arrive in the seedy neighborhood, they
learn that a man has been murdered-and the victim is none other than an Oxford history don. Eager to escape the drudgery of a London winter, the two amateur detectives willingly accept Inspector Field's orders to travel on the new railway line to Oxford, where Collins was once a student, to conduct an undercover investigation.
Once in Oxford, they enlist the help of Collins's old schoolmate, Charles Dodgson, a brilliant mind on the verge of becoming the youngest don in Oxford's history. Together, they encounter a complex conspiracy punctuated by murder, political radicalism, and revenge.
Atmospheric and packed with authentic period detail, The Dons and Mr. Dickens is sure to delight fans of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens and lovers of all things Victorian.
Synopsis
Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins are called to a part of London notorious for its opium dens -- and where an Oxford History Don has been found murdered. With the help of Charles Dodgson, an old schoolmate of Wilkie's, they travel to Oxford and learn the murder is much more complicated than it seemed.
About the Author
William J. Palmer is the author of three previous Dickens mysteries, The Detective and Mr. Dickens, The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens, and The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens. He is the editor of Modern Fiction Studies has published several articles on Charles Dickens novels and reviews books for The Dickens Quarterly, Modern Fiction Studies, and Dickens Studies Annual. He teaches English at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.