BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

BECOMING DICKENS

by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

An insightful argument occasionally marred by somewhat tangential and glib analysis. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

THRILLER & SUSPENSE

DROOD

by Dan Simmons

A lively entertainment, reminiscent of Nicholas Meyer’s Seven-Percent Solution—and a worthy rejoinder to Dickens’s swan song. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

THE RAG & BONE SHOP

by Jeff Rackham

A tale of initially great but subsequently diminished expectations. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

THE LAST DICKENS

by Matthew Pearl

A pleasing whodunit that resolves nicely, bookending Dan Simmons’s novel Drood (2009) as an imaginative exercise in what... Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

NONFICTION

CHARLES DICKENS

by Jane Smiley

A successful attempt to deepen the way we read Dickens, with clues to finding him in his own characters and words. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

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