Author JC Briggs writes historical crime fiction. Her amateur detective is none other than the great Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens. Dickens was fascinated by crime and murder. He went out with the London Police into the grim slums of London and visited the police stations to see how they all worked. According to a recent biographer, Dickens would have enjoyed being a detective. I gave him his wish. He makes a good detective - he is very observant, very clever at working out motive and following the clues with his partner, Superintendent Jones of Bow Street. And Victorian London is a great setting for a murder mystery - all that fog and very sinister alleys. All the books are based on something which really happened in Dickens's life.
The series in order is as follows:
The Murder of Patience Brooke
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.
Death at Hungerford Stairs
London 1849: When a boy is found drowned in the River Thames at Hungerford Stairs, novelist Charles Dickens and Superintendent Jones of Bow Street are mystified to discover that the child is not the missing youngster for whom they have been searching.
Murder by Ghostlight
London 1859: 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.
The Quickening and the Dead
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?
At Midnight in Venice
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 jeweled chain around it.
The Redemption Murders
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.
The Mystery of the Hawke Sapphire
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.
The Chinese Puzzle
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.
Summons to Murder
London 1851: Pierce Mallory, a gentleman journalist, is found dead in his lodgings with a gunshot wound in his head and a duelling pistol beside him. Though the death is deemed a suicide, Mallory’s friends — including Charles Dickens — don’t believe that he would have taken his own life.
The Jaggard Case
London 1851: With Superintendent Sam Jones away in Southampton on the trail of missing murderer Martin Jaggard, his wife, Elizabeth, enlists the help of Charles Dickens when her beloved servant, Posy, goes missing.
The Waxwork Man
Londong 1851: While visiting Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, Charles Dickens crosses paths with Sir Fabian Quarterman, a judge famed for his ruthlessness in court. Then Fabian is found dead.
Murder by Magic
A short story featuring Charles Dickens and his friend, Superintendent Jones of Bow Street must find a serial killer before he murders again.
More details about each book can be found at the website of JC Briggs
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