Charles Dickens had a fascination with detectives. He would accompany police detective Charles Frederick Field and a few of his men on an all-night visitations of the most squalid and dangerous haunts of London’s underclass, later writing about his experiences in his magazine, Household Words in 1852. Could this real life detective have formed the basis for Dickens' own fictional detective, Inspector Bucket, in Bleak House, which was published in serialised form in 1852 - 1853.?
But what if Dickens' interest in detectives started earlier, and he himself took on the role of detective, leading up to his plotting out of his novel Bleak House.? The Bow Street Runners had been in existence for about 100 years, and the Metropolitan Police (or Peelers) were established in 1829, with its detective branch active from 1842.
Author JC Briggs has taken up the character of Charles Dickens and created a new role for him - that of detective, and he features in the following series of books.
The Murder of Patience Brooke
A brutal murder in Victorian London forces a famous writer to solve the mystery…
London, 1849 - Charles Dickens has set up Urania Cottage as a sanctuary for fallen women. But he is shocked when the matron’s assistant – Patience Brooke – is found hanging outside the property, covered in blood.
Desperate to protect the reputation of the Home and to stop a scandal from spreading, Dickens takes the investigation into his own hands. With the help of his good friend, Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street, and a description of the suspect as ‘a man with a crooked face’, Dickens's search takes him deep into the filthy slums of Victorian London.
Can Dickens save his reputation? Will he find out the secrets of Patience Brooke’s troubled past? Or will the killer strike again …?
Death at Hungerford Stairs
A serial killer is on the loose in Victorian London .... Boys are going missing from London’s slums…
As Dickens and Jones delve deeper into London’s poverty-stricken backstreets, they stumble across two more bodies. A serial killer is on the loose. And Charles is terrified that someone close to him may be one of the victims.
With a strange image of a mask sketched next to the corpses, could the murderer be leaving a trail for the detectives to follow…? Or will the Death at Hungerford Stairs remain unsolved…?
Murder by Ghostlight
Dickens has gone from private investigator to prime suspect…
London, 1850 - Charles Dickens is in Manchester, performing at the Queen’s Theatre with his acting group. But his career on the stage is cut short when a man is shot dead – on set. With Dickens himself caught with the gun in his hands, he is immediately arrested.
Along with the help of his good friend Superintendent Sam Jones, Dickens must do all he can to find the real killer, before he is locked up for a crime he didn’t commit.
Can Dickens convince the authorities of his innocence? Will he unmask the true assassin? Or will there be another Murder by Ghostlight…?
The Quickening and the Dead
Three girls, three deaths — but what connects them…?
London, 1850 - Lavinia Gray vanishes on the eve of her wedding and is found drowned. Evie Finch dies of septicaemia in a filthy lodging house. Annie Deverall, a fifteen-year-old milliner’s apprentice is on remand in Newgate, accused of murdering the Doctor Lancelot Plume. Three young girls' lives have been ruined, but could they be connected somehow?
Charles Dickens visits Annie and is immediately convinced of her innocence. He enlists the help of Superintendent Sam Jones to find the real murderer before Annie goes to trial. How are the three girls linked to Plume? And if Annie didn’t kill him, who did? What Charles Dickens uncovers will shock him to his very core…
At Midnight In Venice
Two cities, two skeletons, linked by a mysterious vision…
London, 1850 - An Italian music master and an English governess disappear from the house of Sir Neptune Fane, a prominent Member of Parliament.
A female skeleton is found in a disused water tank behind a house which has been empty for five years. Her neck had been broken and found with a jewelled chain around it.
Are the two corpses connected? And what is the link to Sir Neptune Fane? Charles Dickens and Superintendent Sam Jones must find the link between the backstreets of London and the mysterious canals of Venice…
The Redemption Murders
The sea gave up its dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.…
London, 1851 - The Thames River Police are called to The Redemption, a ship docked at London’s Blackwall Reach. Louis Valentine, the ship’s captain, has been stabbed to death. With no murder weapon on site, and no signs of a robbery, the only clue is a copy of Charles Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop. The book is not inscribed to Valentine but to someone called Kit.
When Charles Dickens realises his good friend Kit Penney is now a murder suspect, he is determined to clear his name. But Kit has gone missing. With the help of Superintendent Sam Jones, Dickens starts to investigate the troubled last journey of The Redemption. It seems there was more than one suspicious death on board. But were they murders? And did the same person attack Captain Valentine?
Dickens and Jones begin a desperate search for Kit – and for the key to the dark secrets bound up in The Redemption…
The Mystery of the Hawke Sapphires
Dickens faces a decades-old disappearance, a brutal murder and a missing link…
London, 1851 - On his deathbed, the sinister Sir Gerald Hawke asks a distant cousin — Reverend Meredith Case — to find Sapphire, his long-lost ward and heir to the Hawke family jewels. Concerned for her welfare, Meredith vows to discover where Sapphire disappeared to.
But in his quest for the truth, Dickens finds that those associated with Felix are reluctant to talk. And when he is called on to assist with the search for the Hawke heir, he begins to wonder whether the two cases could be connected…
What became of Sapphire Hawke? What secrets did Felix take to his grave? And can Dickens find the link between the two mysteries…?
The Chinese Puzzle
Are unsolved murders in London linked to the opium trade - Charles Dickens must unravel a mystery that stretches from the streets of London to the shores of Canton…
London, 1851 - The Great Exhibition has opened, and everyone is flocking to see the wonders on display. But when a potential Chinese assassin manages to get up close to Queen Victoria, and then vanishes without a trace, the Prime Minister orders an urgent investigation.
Superintendent Sam Jones from Bow Street is put on the case to find the whereabouts of the missing man. And he discovers that Cornelius Mornay — a wealthy retired banker from Canton — also went missing on the same day.
As a former opium merchant, it seems that Cornelius had some powerful — and dangerous — connections. The British government order Jones to keep his enquiries under wraps, so he enlists the help of his good friend Charles Dickens to infiltrate the seedier streets of London. And when the body of Mornay is found washed up in Wapping, poisoned with opium, the plot starts to thicken.
Mornay is deeply connected to the Opium trade and the suspects are many. And when more murders occur, it seems this mystery could be connected to something larger than Dickens and Jones had ever imagined…
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