Free (Kindle/iTunes) The Detective & Mr. Dickens [Victorian Celeb Author RPF Mystery]

[ATDrake]

The Detective and Mr. Dickens: Being an Account of the Macbeth Murders and the Strange Events Surrounding Them by Purdue University Professor Emeritus of English William J. Palmer (SYKM, Wikipedia) is the 1st in his retro-Victorian Real Person Fic murder mystery series starring Charles Dickens (you really shouldn't need a Wiki link for him) and Wilkie Collins (you probably shouldn't need a Wikipedia link for him either, but just in case you're not up on your gaslight suspense writers) as the amateur sleuths alongside a host of other period celebrities and literary characters, this installment featuring actress Ellen Ternan (whose Wikipedia entry is probably a spoiler for the likely plot if you're not acquainted with Dickens' personal life), written in the "rediscovered secret journal lost manuscript" style of literary conceit, free courtesy of publisher Diversion Books, who are e-printing it from its 1990 St. Martin's Press hardcover edition.

This was a Mystery Guild bookclub featured selection back in the day, according to the Publishers Weekly review.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK) and iTunes (available to Canadians and most places worldwide, as Diversion freebies often are).

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) ebook thread of the day.

It had some stiff competition from that globe-trotting political/economic development travelogue, since we don't get nearly enough edutaining geopolitical social sciences books from people with decent credentials for my tastes, but ultimately this won out because I'm a sucker for these kinds of public domain literary mashup remix things which are essentially glorified historical RPF which the authors like to pretend totes happened for realz (and this one by someone who actually Did The Research™ ).

And apparently people who read it previously liked it enough to make it a recommended purchase in their commercial bookclub, so

Enjoy!

Description
It was the best of times, it was the worst of crimes in this delightful Dickensian romp, with the canonical author teaming up with a famous upstart to solve a devilish murder.

In Victorian London, Charles Dickens and his protege, the renowned author Wilkie Collins, make the acquaintance of the shrewdest mind either would ever encounter: Inspector William Field of the newly formed Metropolitan Protectives. A gentleman's brutal murder brings the three men together in an extraordinary investigation that leads Dickens to the beautiful young actress Ellen Ternan. Almost immediately, she becomes the love of his life. But first, Dickens must protect her from the noose, as she is the main suspect.

[Dr. Drib]

Got it.

Thank you!