Death strikes England’s foremost novelist Charles Dickens, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Lyn Squire’s Immortalised to Death reveals the ending to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood, while diving deep into Dickens’ evolving and ultimately tragic double life.
Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his electrifying Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. The mystery unravels as Dickens’ nephew and unlikely detective Dunston Burnett, tries to find the solution of his uncles’ unfinished novel. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’ murderer lies in the book’s missing conclusion, Dunston becomes obsessed with investigating those closest to Dickens. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s foremost novelist, and the long-held secret hidden in his half-finished manuscript.
Read on for an interview with the author of Immortalised to Death, Lyn Squire.
S.R.: What’s the story behind readers trying to solve Dickens’ last mystery story, Mystery of Edwin Drood?
L.S.: Everyone who reads Charles Dickens’s unfinished ‘Mystery of Edwin Drood’ wants to solve the mystery. The Edwin of the title disappears, but was he murdered? And if so, by whom? Dickens died before answering these questions, and in the one hundred and fifty years since his death, numerous attempts, ranging from the ingenious to the absurd, have been made to discover the ‘true’ ending.
A 600-page bibliography published in 1998 listed almost 2,000 attempts to unearth clues in the text, decipher how the plot might evolve, and, of course, answer the two burning questions. One might have expected interest to be strong in the nineteenth century and then to gradually tail off in the twentieth. That obviously did not happen, and in fact, interest has continued into the twenty-first century, including a Broadway musical in 2012 in which the audience chooses the ending, a PBS Masterpiece production also in 2012, and in 2014, a one-day academic conference in Senate House in London! And these are only the ones I have come across after a perfunctory search.
Why has interest been so massive over such a long period? Well, partly it must be because Dickens gave us a truly intriguing set-up. But it is also because this is a story by the master, his last ever, and his only mystery. So, grab your meerschaum pipe, put on your deerstalker and try your hand.
S.R.: How did that inspire your book Immortalised to Death?
L.S.: Simple. I came up with my own (and unique) ending to Dickens’s story. Without giving away all the details, my solution turns on the location of a diamond and ruby engagement ring. Dickens leads us to believe it is in Edwin’s breast pocket when he disappears and this ‘fact’ has led everyone down the wrong path. Take away that ‘fact’, and there is good reason for doing so, and a totally new path is opened up for the novel’s conclusion.
Once the excitement of my Eureka moment had passed, my first thought was to write up my solution as non-fiction and be done with it. But then, the more involved I became, the more I saw that my ending to Dickens’s mystery suggested an over-arching story-line encompassing the author himself, and that became the plot for Immortalised to Death.
S.R.: What sort of research did you do, and what was the process like in order to ensure the historical accuracy of your book?
L.S.: Historical accuracy is not a must for me; entertaining the reader is. If one is writing fiction, then surely it is acceptable to adapt incidents and descriptions to fit a story’s needs. That said, I do try to stay as close to the facts as possible.
For instance, I visited Gadshill Place, Dickens’s home in Kent, less than an hour’s train ride from London, to make sure that the book’s description of his home was as faithful to the original as possible. I actually stood in his study where the murder in Immortalised to Death is perpetrated.
I also read several biographies of the author (including the 900-page monster by John Forster, his literary advisor) and numerous related books. And I went to some length to ensure that words and colloquialisms are all consistent with nineteenth century practice. My bottom line is to provide readers with a convincing impression of time and place without necessarily overwhelming them with detail, while avoiding any anachronisms that might spoil the reader’s enjoyment.
S.R.: What are some of the challenges of writing a mystery novel?
L.S.: I have reviewed over one hundred mysteries for City Book Review (Sacramento). The ones that stand out have something unique about them. Given the enormous number of mysteries that come off the press every year, the greatest challenge must surely be finding that unique something. This could be the writing style (not often), or the lead character (more often), but usually for mysteries it is the plot.
Examples that spring to mind are The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard, an inspired story of revenge at West Point, with its truly inventive twist in the tale. Or more recently, The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi, which makes the reader think more generally about mysteries and their structure.
My hope is that the original solution to The Mystery of Edwin Drood presented in Immortalised to Death will nudge my novel into the unique category.
S.R.: What do you hope readers take away from Immortalised to Death?
L.S.: My hope is that when readers close the cover of Immortalised to Death, they will feel that they have been entertained. If my novel causes readers to exercise their little grey cells trying to work through the complexities of the plot, that is fine. If it entices them to get hold of a copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and figure out what Dickens had in mind for the conclusion, that too is fine. But, if they walk away from my book and do not have that feeling of pleasure that comes from an enthralling three or four hour read, then Immortalised to Death will have failed.
S.R.: What are you working on next?
L.S.: I have two books underway which together with ‘Immortalised to Death’ will complete The Dunston Burnett Trilogy. Dunston Burnett is my unconventional, amateur detective. He is a diffident, middle-aged, retired bookkeeper, hardly detective material. For a quick mental image of him, think of a latter-day Mr Pickwick.
What makes matters worse is that the mysteries he encounters appear unsolvable. He does however have two talents. He has what his policeman friend calls ‘pre-deductions’, insights that jump well beyond the known facts and that may or may not prove prescient. And once he gets his teeth into something, he has the perseverance of King Bruce’s spider. The question confronting Dunston (and the reader) in the three-book series is this: Are his limited detective skills—his pre-ductions and his tenacity—anywhere near enough to unravel such apparently clue-free murders?
The full answer will only be revealed by reading the novels. Suffice it to say here that the picture is mixed. Read Immortalised to Death to learn how far Dunston’s envisioned conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood takes him in solving the bigger mystery—the death of Charles Dickens. Or Fatally Inferior to see if unearthing the motive behind a woman’s disappearance leads him to the killer. Or The Séance of Murder to find out whether Dunton can expose the murderer of the heir to the Crenshaw Baronetcy before he himself dies.
The immediate goal then is to finish the trilogy. Immortalised to Death will be published by Level Best Books in September, 2023; Fatally Inferior is complete in draft and scheduled to appear in 2024; and The Séance of Murder, still being written, in 2025. If this effort receives favourable attention, I will explore new options.
Pre-order your copy of Immortalised to Death here.
Lyn Squire was born in Cardiff, South Wales. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales, his master’s at the London School of Economics and his doctorate at Cambridge University. Lyn is now an American citizen living in Virginia. During a twenty-five year career at the World Bank, Lyn published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise. Lyn also served as editor of the Middle East Development Journal for over a decade, and was the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world.
Lyn has always been an avid reader of whodunits and has reviewed scores of mysteries for the City Book Review (Sacramento, CA), but it was the thrill of solving Charles Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood that convinced him to put aside his development pen and turn to fiction. Finding a solution to the mystery has attracted massive interest since the author’s death in 1870. A 1998 bibliography lists over 2,000 entries, with continuations ranging from the obvious (a Sherlock Holmes pastiche) to the absurd (The Mysterious Mystery of Rude Dedwin). Lyn’s version of what happened to Edwin is revealed in his first novel, Immortalised to Death. The adventures of his protagonist, Dunston Burnett, a non-conventional amateur detective, continue in Fatally Inferior and The Séance of Murder, the second and third stories in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy. Find more about Lyn on his website.
