A Tale of Two Murders

The ambitious young journalist Charles Dickens is at dinner with the Hogarths, his editor's family, when they hear women screaming. Dickens, Hogarth, and the eldest Hogarth daughter Kate rush next door where a widow lives with her two children. There, they find Christiana Lugoson sick. The young woman dies within 24 hours. Although the death of a 17-year-old seems unusual, it's only when another journalist mentions a similar death exactly a year earlier that Dickens suspects murder. With his editor's permission, he makes inquiries while he and Kate use the investigation as an excuse to spend time together. Redmond, author of the "Redcakes" Victorian romance series (The Marquess of Cakes) emphasizes Dickens's courtship with his future wife in this first book in a new historical series. The mystery itself is convoluted, but the details of the author's life and the Victorian world stand out in a book that drags at times.