The Dons and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot; A Secret Victorian Journal, Attributed to Wilkie Collins

In this historical mystery ""lite,"" Wilkie Collins and his mentor, Charles Dickens, aided by Charles Dodgson, investigate the murder of one of Dodgson's fellow Oxford dons. As in other novels in this series (The Detective and Mr. Dickens, etc.), Dickens's mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan, plays a key roleDhere disguised as a barmaid at an Oxford pub, where she's planted in hopes she'll overhear members of the odd circle of dons that included the victim reveal some clue to his murder. Our heroes come to realize that these dons are involved in a neo-Gunpowder Plot, only possibly harmless, timed for Queen Victoria's annual Oxford visit. The author, a Dickens scholar, keeps the reader guessing the motives and the identity of the group's ringleader, while the jealous agonies that Dickens goes through as Ellen plays her often saucy part account for much of the fun in this ""secret Victorian journal."" Fun of a different sort is spotting the anachronisms. The year is 1853, yet Dodgson in a major scene uses ""flash powder"" to take a picture in the dark, decades before flash photography. Most egregious, however, is Mycroft Holmes, in a cameo role as a government agent, speaking of his ""eccentric younger brother"" the year before the great detective's birth. Some readers won't notice or care, but for the more literate, the prime audience for this type of mystery, such lapses only undermine the spell. An attractive period dust jacket is a plus. (Nov.)