The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

This is Dickens' last unfinished novel. My cunning plan is to read this, then read some of the many novels that attempt to finish the novel for Dickens, or deal with the end of Dickens life. Any excuse to read more books!

Actually, even though the novel is unfinished, it's a satisfying read. Edwin Drood disappears. He is a young, happy-go-lucky, man who was engaged in an arranged marriage. Just as Edwin and his fiance break off their engagement, he disappears. Public suspicion falls on a friend of his, another young man. But all clues tend to point to his uncle Jasper, who seems obsessed with Edwin's fiance. Jasper is also a secret opium addict, smoking it in the opening scene in a den in London.

No one knows where Dickens intended to take the novel. Is Edwin really dead? Or has he just disappeared because of the termination of his engagement? We'll never know, but that hasn't stopped other writers from speculating.

Link to Amazon: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)