The Pickwick Murders

It’s 1836 in Redmond’s droll fourth Charles Dickens mystery (after 2020’s A Christmas Carol Murder), and Charles has much to celebrate on the eve of his first book’s publication—an invitation to join the exalted Lightning Club and his impending marriage. But when Charles is discovered with bloody hands next to the body of Samuel Pickwick, the Lightning Club’s president, Charles’s intrepid fiancée, Kate Hogarth, and his stalwart brother, Fred, are certain Sir Augustus Smirke, a member of Parliament, has framed Charles to deter him from investigating Smirke’s connection to Amy Poor, a missing girl. With Charles imprisoned in Newgate Prison for murder, his friends and family must solve a series of anonymously mailed riddles to unmask the real killer before Charles hangs. Besides painting a finely detailed portrait of life in London and its social hierarchy, Redmond creates captivating sleuths in the young Charles and the valiant Kate with their sharp-eyed observations of British society and its individuals. Readers will definitely want to see more from this author. Agent: Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary. (Nov.)