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Beth Austin #3
The Charles Dickens Murders
It was the best of times. It was the worst of crimes.
On a sweltering summer night, a woman dies mysteriously in her hospital bed in New York City. A thousand miles away, amateur sleuth and Midwestern University professor Beth Austin prepares for a class on The Mystery of Edwin Drood , when her mother drops a Fifty years ago, she was involved in a similar Dickensian love triangle and unsolved murder at the University of Chicago.
As Beth soon discovers, it's the stuff of great fiction. A gorgeous coed was killed, no suspect was found, and her mother's once-tight college clique dissolved. Each had a motive for murder, now concealed in a morass of lies. Then the killer strikes again in New York, half a century later. Now Beth must re-create the scene of the crime to see if, as in Bleak House , beauty is its own punishment. To learn what her own mother cannot, or will not, tell her. And to risk her own life as the killer, determined to keep old secrets buried, prepares to strike again. . . .
On a sweltering summer night, a woman dies mysteriously in her hospital bed in New York City. A thousand miles away, amateur sleuth and Midwestern University professor Beth Austin prepares for a class on The Mystery of Edwin Drood , when her mother drops a Fifty years ago, she was involved in a similar Dickensian love triangle and unsolved murder at the University of Chicago.
As Beth soon discovers, it's the stuff of great fiction. A gorgeous coed was killed, no suspect was found, and her mother's once-tight college clique dissolved. Each had a motive for murder, now concealed in a morass of lies. Then the killer strikes again in New York, half a century later. Now Beth must re-create the scene of the crime to see if, as in Bleak House , beauty is its own punishment. To learn what her own mother cannot, or will not, tell her. And to risk her own life as the killer, determined to keep old secrets buried, prepares to strike again. . . .
292 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 10, 1998
About the author
Edith Skom
4 books3 followersEdith Skom is the acclaimed author of The Mark Twain Murders and The George Eliot Murders and has been nominated for the Agatha, the Macavity, and the Anthony awards. She lives outside Chicago, where she is a lecturer at Northwestern University.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 19, 2018
The Charles Dickens Murders opens with the murder of a woman in her hospital bed in New York City. We later learn that Dewey, the murdered woman, is one of the "Fourth Floor Gang" of girls who attended the University of Chicago at the same time as our heroine's (English professor and amateur sleuth, Beth Austin) mother Laurie. During her years at college, there was another violent death--never solved, as well as thefts, lies, secrets, and love triangles. When Beth talks her mother into spilling what she remembers about that previous death, she finds that she'd rather concentrate on that mysterious death than The Mystery of Edwin Drood which is the focus of her current class lectures. Her investigations culminate in a classic gathering of the suspects where she unravels the past to show the gang who was responsible for both the death 40 years ago and Dewey's more recent death.
When I picked it up at at Half Price Books, I was sure the The Charles Dickens Murders (1998) by Edith Skom would be a winner. After all, it's an academic mystery and I love those. Usually. This one--not so much. There isn't a likable character among the Fourth Floor Gang...including Beth's mother who shows a remarkable lack of interest in the death of one her supposed closest friends from college. The mystery plot itself is fairly well done (which gives us the source of all the star-power in my ★★ rating) but the motive is rather lacking. Perhaps if I had cared more about the characters, the motive may have seemed more compelling. Overall, one of the more lack-luster academic mysteries I have read (including The George Eliot Murders by the same author). I was also unimpressed by the supposed connection between the Dickens novels Beth is reading for her class (she moves on to Bleak House mid-way through the book). She tries to cast the various people from her mother's college days as Dickens characters, but the conceit really doesn't work well--and there is no other reason to title the book as it is.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
When I picked it up at at Half Price Books, I was sure the The Charles Dickens Murders (1998) by Edith Skom would be a winner. After all, it's an academic mystery and I love those. Usually. This one--not so much. There isn't a likable character among the Fourth Floor Gang...including Beth's mother who shows a remarkable lack of interest in the death of one her supposed closest friends from college. The mystery plot itself is fairly well done (which gives us the source of all the star-power in my ★★ rating) but the motive is rather lacking. Perhaps if I had cared more about the characters, the motive may have seemed more compelling. Overall, one of the more lack-luster academic mysteries I have read (including The George Eliot Murders by the same author). I was also unimpressed by the supposed connection between the Dickens novels Beth is reading for her class (she moves on to Bleak House mid-way through the book). She tries to cast the various people from her mother's college days as Dickens characters, but the conceit really doesn't work well--and there is no other reason to title the book as it is.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 11, 2018
Meh.
Some pretty steep conceptual leaps in how the protagonist figures things out, though I was kept guessing until almost the end. I wasn't super invested in the interpersonal dramas of the present day, and most of the characters from the flashbacks weren't particularly likable or dislikable.
I couldn't really buy into the oblivious professor boldly solving the murders, either. She seemed too fanciful - classic literature is not always a good lens with which to view human nature, after all. There is some cool potential in that concept - maybe it's better executed in the other books in the series? But in this one it felt a bit forced.
I will say that I just about devoured the book trying to figure out who the murderer was.
Some pretty steep conceptual leaps in how the protagonist figures things out, though I was kept guessing until almost the end. I wasn't super invested in the interpersonal dramas of the present day, and most of the characters from the flashbacks weren't particularly likable or dislikable.
I couldn't really buy into the oblivious professor boldly solving the murders, either. She seemed too fanciful - classic literature is not always a good lens with which to view human nature, after all. There is some cool potential in that concept - maybe it's better executed in the other books in the series? But in this one it felt a bit forced.
I will say that I just about devoured the book trying to figure out who the murderer was.
August 7, 2022
Dickens' references are mostly to Lady Deadwood of Bleak House, although there are some to Edwin Drood. The chapters alternative between events taking place at a 20th century state university and the University of Chicago in the late 1940s, presenting an interesting sociological comparison between student life at a major university and a modern regional school.
June 11, 2017
I really wanted to like this book, but it was a case of a great idea with poor execution.
March 18, 2026
A grudging two stars. This has very little to do with Dickens or murder. Color me disappointed.
September 7, 2010
I confess, I was first attracted to this novel because of the title. I had not read an Edith Skom book before but am interested in Dickens as well as mysteries. I am very glad I picked it up and can see now I will have to go back and purchase the other two novels by Skom.
The narrative skips about in time some as we spend the first half of the novel living the story of the past (where/when the murder takes place) and then spend the second half with the protagonist as she attempts to solve the mystery. The skipping around in time was not difficult to follow and was actually a refreshing approach to telling the tale.
The characters were realistic and the plot was not at all predictable. At one point, one of the characters compares their situation with the plot of Agatha Christie's classic "Ten Little Indians" (also called "And Then There Were None"). Coincidentally, I had read that book, as well, only last month and thought the comparisons valid.
The narrative skips about in time some as we spend the first half of the novel living the story of the past (where/when the murder takes place) and then spend the second half with the protagonist as she attempts to solve the mystery. The skipping around in time was not difficult to follow and was actually a refreshing approach to telling the tale.
The characters were realistic and the plot was not at all predictable. At one point, one of the characters compares their situation with the plot of Agatha Christie's classic "Ten Little Indians" (also called "And Then There Were None"). Coincidentally, I had read that book, as well, only last month and thought the comparisons valid.
December 7, 2014
This book was a gift to me because I love Dickens, and the plot sounded interesting on the cover. But I just couldn't get past the shallow characters or their constant nonsense about boys and sex, etc etc to even get close to anything that sounded like a murder mystery was involved, let alone Dickens, and it never seemed like it would be worth it even when (if???) they showed up. The characters were mostly college girls, and so stereotypical: the popular one, the sensible one, the smart one who the popular one bribes a popular boy to ask out, etc etc etc. Just didn't do anything for me, so I pass.
September 3, 2016
Not the best of the series. Beth's mother reminisces about a murder that happened when she attended college 50 years ago. She tells the whole laborious story to Beth, Beth equates some of the characters to Charles Dickens story "bleak house"; Beth decides to find all the people that were involved in this murder story; imagines conversations that took place and brings the entire cast of characters together to reenact the last night they were all together when the murder took place. The entire story comes out and the appropriate people are punished.
June 23, 2010
The only reason that I finished it was that I was on a plane and had nothing else to read. I read the first hundres pages which were really slow. Lots of background with nothing happening. By that time, I decided to finish it to find out what happened, but the ending was confusing with the motive for murder very vague and a character who had never been mentioned before brought in.
July 2, 2008
I read the first two over ten years ago and this one felt like a standalone book. I remember that I liked the series way back when, but now I can see how cardboard the characters are and how poor the writing is. Best part and what kept me reading was the “who done it?”
November 5, 2007
This book is a must-read for all University of Chicago students and alum! It is a fun foray into the detective/mystery genre and a lovely reminiscent journey on campus in the 50s. Loved it!
August 8, 2009
A good mystery but it took its sweet time in getting to the point. I did like the overlapping of Dickens to a modern mystery though and it was very clever.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews