A young Charles Dickens and his
future wife are our amateur sleuths in A
Tale of Two Murders—the first in a series of mysteries by Heather Redmond.
Two Epiphanies in succession two young girls have died—possibly by poison—and
aspiring journalist Dickens is on a quest to uncover the truth.
There are the usual trappings of
a good mystery—a cast of colourful characters, families replete with secrets,
and a shoal of red herrings—with a fun overlay of Dickensian homage. Redmond
draws some characters from the famous writer’s own life and names others after
his most famous literary creations. Occasional lines of dialogue allude to his
prose. Nineteenth-century London imbues every page and there’s even a cameo for
a gang of street urchins.
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| Heather Redmond |
Dickens’s writing talents and
social attitudes make him a believable detective, while his partner in fighting
crime Kate Hogarth is a little nauseatingly perfect. We also get a great
picture of the grandfather of Victorian literature in his youth—hardworking, sleep-deprived
and desperate for his next meal (a great touch!). I would though have liked a
few more nods to the man Dickens would become. Maybe Redmond will, for example,
reveal cracks in the Charles/Kate romance later in her series.
I didn’t guess who’d done it
until the last few chapters and the plot has enough turns to keep the novel interesting.
But, in keeping with a lot of mysteries, the dialogue is clunky and
unbelievable. People divulge information too quickly, conversations end almost
as soon as they’ve begun and the class dynamics amongst a varied cast don’t
ring true in how they speak to each other. I wanted Dickens to be surprised and
forced to confront his own assumptions about guilt, danger and gender but this didn’t
happen.
If you love mysteries, this one’s
definitely for you, but A Tale of Two
Murders doesn’t have enough depth to convert even the most Dickens-obsessed
of sceptics to the genre.
What should the Secret
Victorianist review next as part of my Neo-Victorian Voices series? Let me
know—here, on Facebook or by tweeting @SVictorianist.
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