The Pickwick Murders by Heather Redmond

The Pickwick Murders
by Heather Redmond

ISBN-13: 9781496734280
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Released: October 26th 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
London, January 1836: Just weeks before the release of his first book, Charles is thrilled by an invitation to join the exclusive Lightning Club. But his initiation in a basement maze takes a wicked turn when he stumbles upon the corpse of Samuel Pickwick, the club's president. With the victim's blood literally on his hands, Charles is locked away in notorious Newgate Prison.

Now it's up to Kate to keep her framed fiance from the hangman's noose, but she's forced instead to puzzle her way through a fiendish series of baffling riddles sent to her in anonymous poison pen letters. With the help of family and friends, she must keep her wits about her to corner the real killer--before time runs out and Charles Dickens meets a dead end...


My Review:
The Pickwick Murders is a mystery set in 1836 in London. It's the fourth in a series. You don't need to read the previous book to understand this one, and this book didn't spoil the previous mysteries. However, minor characters from the previous mysteries do show up in this one.

Vivid historical and setting details were woven into the story, creating a distinct sense of the time and place. The author tried to stay true to what is known about Charles Dickens' career and lifestyle in his early twenties (minus the being thrown in prison part, which didn't really happen). The main characters were interesting and acted realistically. I cared about what happened to them.

However, there were a couple of tales that were thrown in that had nothing to do with the main story. Kate also had to solve a series of riddles rather than work on solving the main whodunit mystery, which was frustrating for her and soon felt like filler to me. Once Charles friends got down to investigating, they solved the mystery pretty quickly. Though a realistic ending, it wasn't a very satisfying one. The people behind the evil weren't really punished.

There was one use of British bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'll probably keep on reading the series because of the wonderful, accurate historical detail, so I guess I'd recommend this book to fans of historicals.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.