Boston, 1870. When news of Charles Dickens's death reaches his American publisher, James Osgood sends his trusted clerk Daniel Sand to await the arrival of the last installment of the author's final manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. But Daniel never returns. When his body is found by the docks, Osgood embarks for London on a quest to find the missing work and unmask a killer, with Daniel's sister Rebecca at his side. From the author of The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow, this mystery takes Osgood into a web of opium dens, sadistic thugs, and literary lions to solve Dickens's final mystery—and to save his and Rebecca's lives. "[Matthew] Pearl's plot is ambitious and satisfying, involving a murder and a missing manuscript, the opium trade, the emerging publishing business in New York and Boston, and the predicament of single, divorced women in America in the 19th century. Fans of Dickens will appreciate Pearl's literary allusions and his thoroughly researched characterizations."—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel