Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not very Victorian, but has suspense
I find it hard to get past the writing style, which does not come across as convincingly Victorian and is not Mr. Palmer's strong suit (he fails to employ simple devices that can render the language more pleasing, such as varying his vocabulary within a paragraph - he would rather repeat terms such as "crowd" three times or more in the space of two sentences, instead of introducing "throng," "mob," "multitudes," etc.). It does not help that my edition is riddled with printing errors; even the editor's note spells history wrong ("histroy") on page one, and has at least one footnote error (citing "Women in White" instead of "Woman in White" - a grievous slip-up in a piece purporting to be by the author Wilkie Collins). Suspense, however, Palmer does well, so that despite the distractions of language and typographical errors, the book still manages to be a sufficient page-turner to get through at least the first few chapters. As to finishing the book, however, I'm afraid this ranks as one of those "life is too short" selections that gets abandoned before the mystery is solved.

Goes down quick and easy
I love historical mysteries. This one is not quite in the league of Caleb Carr's The Alienist, and it's less cerebral than The Dante Club, but definitely an enjoyable light read that I recommend to fans of the genre and fans of Charles Dickens.

Voctorian Novelists Unleashed, with Cronies & Women
William J. Palmer's literary mystery stretches the form without crossing the line. Charles Dickens tackles impressively (readers with ancient leg injuries which occasionally act up may wish to avert their eyes) &swims fairly well under pressure. Wilkie Collins conquers a potentiallydisastrous case of priggishness & may be making serious advancesagainst chronic foppery. Inspector William Field, Irish Meg Sheehey, &theextravagantly gifted Talley Ho Thompson, some sort of grinning dervishgenius pickpocket Robin Hood, but watch your watch, all come to life easily& naturally, unburdened by heavy novelistic responsibilities. EllenTernan is only awfully pretty so far, but may turn interesting as she agesup nearer to legal. Read the next one, if you can procure a copy anywhere(Amazon seems out), & there may be a third. Palmer can write, &knows how to drop an occasional pearl of wisdom lightly, without needlesslyinfuriating his patrons. There is a single profoundly unfortunatemulti-layer allusion & one short example of illicit typography, butthese petty faults are easily overbalanced by genuinely sane handling ofthe early death of Dickens' daughter Dora plus the best Victorianwenchfight I have ever read. A bonafide romp. This fun is serious. Buy it.

A dickens of a good time
Dr. Joe Palmer was one of my English professors at Purdue University.This novel (and the two "sequels") display the same enthusiasm and love of the Victorian era he brought to the classroom.These books provideinteresting historical and biographical details, but are by no means toohigh-brow or scholarly for mystery fans.If you like Anne Perry, you mustread Joe Palmer. ... Read more

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Volume: 1Publisher: London : Longman, Brown, Green, and LongmansPublication date: 1848Subjects: Collins, William, 1788-1847Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Inspector William Field unite to pursue the Medusa Murderer, a killer whose victims have been found unmarked, their faces frozen in masks of fear. ... Read more

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This book fills a gaping hole in previous assessments of one of the nineteenth century's most loved novelists--Wilkie Collins. ... Read more

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In this intimate Victorian life of the father of the detective story, Mr. Clarke uncovers and explores, with insight and sympathy, the private relationships of a fascinating writer. A literary coup...casts a fresh beam of light on the great, dark seam of Victorian sexual mores. --Observer ... Read more

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Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is a major British Victorian novelist, dramatist, short story writer, and journalist. He has been the subject of two recent biographies, and a revival of interest in his works is now under way. An indispensable reference for scholars interested in Collins and Victorian literature, this book includes a narrative discussion of the contents of his library and its auction and provides annotated entries for individual items. In reconstructing his library, this reference offers a thorough analysis of the books he owned and his response to them and thus illuminates Collins as a reader and writer. ... Read more