Grave expectations

Before Charles Dickens made it big as a novelist, he was a journalist, and in his spare time, at least in Redmond's imagining, he and fiancée Kate Hogarth were amateur sleuths. In this second in an atmospheric, absorbing series (after A Tale of Two Murders, 2018), the couple finds Dickens' genteel upstairs neighbor dead, a corkscrew through her neck. The murder adds to young Charles' woes: his earnings are depleted by his hard-living father, the rent on rooms that are closer to his beloved Kate are pricey, and he is committed to not leave destitute children to fend for themselves. Solving the crime brings him further toward the brink of ruin, with his privileged fiancée little help, but it also edges readers closer to Victorian London, whose odors and depravities seep from the pages. Suspicion of Jewish Londoners was a feature of the times and is portrayed here, though Dickens himself is shown as kind to all. An unexpected resolution to the crime closes a worthy read that provides some armchair time travel and is great for fans of Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series.--Henrietta Verma Copyright 2019 Booklist

Set in London in the summer of 1835, Redmond's appealing sequel to 2018's A Tale of Two Murders finds journalist Charles Dickens looking forward to his wedding to Kate Hogarth. Realizing that he has not seen his upstairs neighbor, Miss Haverstock, in several days, Charles takes Kate for a visit. In her rooms, the couple discover the elderly spinster murdered. Two convicts have recently escaped from a nearby prison, and the neighborhood has suffered a rash of burglaries, leading Charles to suspect a fairly routine crime. Kate insists that the staging of the body--Miss Haverstock is wearing a yellowed wedding gown and a corkscrew is buried in her neck--indicates a complex personal motive instead. The investigation the pair pursue is slow to gather momentum, and the author's efforts to integrate elements of Great Expectations into the story can feel forced. Yet Redmond effectively captures the young Charles's ebullient energy, the warmth of his circle, and the color of a fast-changing era. Readers will look forward to Charles's further adventures. Agent: Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary. (Aug.)

Charles Dickens probes puzzles large and small as he continues his courtship of his editor's daughter.Renting rooms in Selwood Terrace for the summer, in addition to his regular lodgings in Holborn, seemed like a good idea at the time. Although costly, his second home is much closer to his fiancee, Kate Hogarth, and her family. And the temporary move gives Charles and his brother Fred the chance to live in a brighter, airier place than Holborn. Unfortunately, darkness soon makes its way even to relatively rural Chelsea. First, someone slips a copy of a 50-year-old magazine under Charles' door, with an article titled "Death of a Jewish Child" marked for him to read. But before he can learn the identity of the sender, another more pressing death confronts him. Worried that he hasn't seen his elderly neighbor, Miss Haverstock, in several days, Charles goes upstairs to her apartment and finds her arrayed in an ancient wedding dress and strangled to death. His investigation gains even more urgency when Daniel Jones, a local blacksmith, is arrested for the crime, leaving his family on the brink of eviction by their unscrupulous landlord. The police suspect Jones of being in league with Osvald Larsen and Ned Blood, two escaped convicts. But Charles is more suspicious of Miss Haverstock's foster daughter, Evelina Jaggers, and her suitor, Prince Moss. While Charles, aided by the ever charming Kate, struggles to help the Joneses, he also has to keep an eye on young Fred as well as on his hapless father, always a hair's breadth from debtor's prison. The life of a promising journalist in 19th-century London is complicated, but Redmond's (A Tale of Two Murders, 2018) hero is more than up to the challenge in this topsy-turvy take on a British literary classic.Once again, Redmond mixes history, mystery, and a little bit of whimsy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.