Book Review: Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was only half finished when its author, Charles Dickens, died.  Lacking any notes or outlines, it is impossible to determine how Dickens would have completed the story.  Scholars have sifted through the text for clues, and most have determined who the murderer is, but the question remains what plot twists the author would have employed.


In the novel Drood, Dan Simmons speculates an extensive backstory for the creation of this half-novel.  Through the narrator Wilkie Collins, the reader is introduced to elements of mysticism, paranoia, and excessive usage of opium, until reality is bent.  Pieces of truth are vigorously blended with fantasy, until you question what is real.  Even the nightmare elements present their own version of the truth.
Please ignore the beetle
in my brainWilkie Collins was a successful writer in his own right, penning thrillers/mysteries such as The Moonstone and The Woman in White.  In Drood, Collins acts as narrator.  His crippling gout leads him to resort to ever increasing dosages of laudanum (an opium derivative) and morphine, until his world view becomes a fever dream of jealousy and paranoia.  Eventually, the reader begins to doubt much of what Collins relates, but for him it is the absolute truth.
There is no beetleSimmons sets up a Salieri/Mozart relationship between Collins and Dickens.  At the time, Collins was highly popular, but soon he begins to suspect that his legacy will slip away, while the Inimical (his term for Dickens) will be remembered in posterity.
Simmons incorporates plenty of actual events for verisimilitude, so that the novel also acts as a biography of Dickens.  The novel opens with the Staplehurst accident, where a train derailed while crossing a viaduct.  The first-class coach that Dickens was traveling in wound up dangling over the edge.  Dickens managed to climb out, rescuing his mistress Ellen Ternan and her mother before helping the wounded.  The incident continued to haunt Dickens for the remainder of his life.  Other actual events include Dickens’ extensive reading tours that contributed to his declining health; his melodramatically theatrical approach to performing the scenes all but wrecked his constitution.
Simmons’ novel is a page-turner, albeit a long one.  He wisely keeps Collins’ narration engaging, even as it goes over chronological details.  Only a few times does the story begin to drag, particularly around the time of Dickens’ trip to America, when Collins is busy producing their play, No Thoroughfare.  Once Drood reappears on the scene, the novel then takes on a breakneck pace to the end.
I was impressed by how Simmons blended history with thriller, and how he reimagined The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Dickens and Collins as Edwin and Jasper respectively.  A great piece of story-craft.