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"Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses ... On one of his long...

"June 1870. The world-famous author Charles Dickens has been found dead in his summerhouse where he had been hard at work on his final, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Did he die of natural causes -- or is there something more sinister behind his sudden demise? George Sala, Dickens' biographer, is convinced his friend was murdered -- and he has hired private investigators Matthew Grand and James Batchelor to prove it. Could Dickens'...

London, June 1835: In the interest of being a good neighbor, Charles checks in on Miss Haverstock, the elderly spinster who resides in the flat above his. But as the young journalist and his fiance Kate ascend the stairs, they are assaulted by the unmistakable smell of death. Upon entering the woman's quarters, they find her decomposing corpse propped up, adorned in a faded gown that looks like it could have been her wedding dress, had she been married....

"November, 1853. Inspector Field has summoned his friends Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to examine a body found in an attic studio, its throat cut. Around the body lie the lacerated fragments of canvas of a painting titled A Winter of Despair. On closer examination, Wilkie realizes he recognizes the victim, for he had been due to dine with him that very evening. The dead man is Edwin Milton-Hayes, one of Wilkie's brother Charley's artist friends....

Witnessing the fatal defenestration of neighbor Jacob Harley while caroling in 1835 London, young Charles Dickens and his fiancée, Kate, disagree about the case's chief suspect, Emmanuel Screws, an unpleasant counting-house codger with a rather colorful imagination. London, December 1835. Charles and Kate are out with friends and family for a chilly night of caroling and good cheer. Their singing is interrupted by a body plummeting from an upper...