This book is not about Drood. This book has no mystery. This book has no horror. This book does not even have a single moment of simple fright. What this book is, is a 1,000 page tribute to Charles Dickens' career and his relationship with friend and rival Wilkie Collins as told through the unreliable narration of said rival. It is boring and warrants 200 pages of attention, if that. Do yourself a favor and order a pizza instead.

An incredible book. Very well written and those who share a love for historical fiction will LOVE this book. It is long but it is so well written and the story so engrossing that I read every page with pleasure and finished the book in two nights.

I haven't read a book as wonderful as this book, except for maybe Simmons' "The Terror". This is a master writer at work. He can tap into that populist suspense tone without descending into the realm of King and Koontz. The thing I found most fascinating about this novel was that it was told from the viewpoint of Wilkie Collins. Collins was far more successful in his day than Dickens, yet he was plagued by Dickens obvious genius - plus the demon of his drug addiction. "Drood" is the story of Dickens' last, incomplete novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and why he didn't finish it. All told through the eyes of Collins, who literally and figuratiely descends into madness in this novel. The evocative Dickensian - or would it be Collinsian? - settings Simmons creates are pitch-perfect. Collins and Dickens are more than mere historical figures - they are living, breathing characters. And the mystery of Drood? One of the best suspense plots in years (next to the FANTASTIC tale told in "The Terror".) I was so gob-smacked by this book, that I ran out and read "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and Collins' "Moonstone", as well as about 3 or 4 other fictional novels about both Dickens and Drood. This book still haunts me to this day...