RATING: 3.5 STARS
2018; Kensington Books

After listening to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings again this year, I decided to finally try this historical mystery. In A Tale of Two Murders, Charles Dickens is single with an eye on his boss's daughter. While at his boss's home for dinner they hear a scream in the night. Dickens and his future wife, Kate go next door to investigate the cry for help and soon find themselves involved in a murder mystery. Before reading this novel, I watched the movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas so I knew a bit about Dickens life around the time he wrote A Christmas Carol. His relationship with his wife, Kate in the movie was very interesting as she is seen to be very supportive. That seems to be the case also in this novel, when the two are single and have crushes on one another. I enjoyed the characterizations of both real and fictional characters. I found that the story did drag a bit at times, and felt a bit long. I am going to continue the series and look forward to seeing more of Kate as well.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I’d rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Another fabulous read from Heather Redmond!! LOVED this tale - it combined such mystery and witty dialogue, that I found myself engrossed from the first chapter.

To put it simply, this title is good, not great. If you enjoy mystery novels with authors as protagonists, you'll enjoy this novel. It makes for good reading on vacation or when one needs a break from more pressing demands.

This is an entertaining mystery with Charles Dickens and his future wife being detectives in the Victorian era. Great characters and story; look forward to more from Redmond.

This was a slow moving but compelling read. The characters were believable and were the descriptions of London and surrounding areas. I thought the story not as exciting as most murder mysteries I have read yet there was something compelling in wanting to discover the conclusion to the murders. Underlying was a sweet love story that was based in fact. I will read this author again.

— I received an eARC via Netgally in exchange for a honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this opportunity. —

I love the idea of making young Charles Dickens the center of a murder-mystery! I always think of him as an old man, so it’s fascinating to read about a vision of him before he starts writing novels, when he is still a newspaper journalist, and at the cusp of starting to seriously court the woman history tells us will be his wife.
Full of nineenth-century English society with it’s quirks and flaws, this story follows the mysterious deaths of two young women, with many unexpected connections and plot twists.

A 22 year old Charles Dickens and his editor's daughter, Kate Hogarth are celebrating the Epiphany with her family when they hear a scream from the neighbour's house and witness the death of a beautiful young woman.
They soon discover it's murder and embark together on a mystery-solving mission which bears parallels to A Tale of Two Cities.
This novel is very well-written and ambitiously brings Dickens to life again with humour and extraordinary insight. Whether you are a Dickens fan or not, I am sure you will enjoy this story right until it's surprising end.

If you're a fan of Charles Dickens, I could see how this would be a much more interesting book (to learn more about him and his future wife, his life, etc). Unfortunately for me, I only picked up this book because it sounded like an interesting mystery, not because I'm interested in Dickens, and I found it to be just ok and ultimately skippable. I think there *might* have been some lines or plotlines in the book that echo stuff in Dickens' actual novels, but as I've only read 1 or 2 of those, I'm not positive and they didn't mean much to me; they felt more like a wink wink to Dickens fans. The mystery was interesting in parts and slow and dragging in parts, but nothing was attention-grabbing and Charles and Kate weren't particularly interesting to me. Their budding romance was sweet and fairly boring. Charles spends lots of time thinking about hungry he is or how cold and wet his feet are. I sympathize but don't necessarily need to read about it so much. He was pretty likable, but I didn't find him to be particularly intelligent, witty, or interesting.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I found it difficult to get into it for the first 25% of the book. I found the narration hasty when the story started, especially the first death part, which is still a bit dull in my mind. But it is a good mystery book and a nice plot which after 25% kept me busy.

Really enjoyed this book. It describes Dickens London well and you can feel yourself walking along with him.
The story unfolds as it progresses and you feel as though you know the characters like friend. There are many twists along the way, the murderer being the final one.

I do believe if Charles Dickens ever came across a murder he would investigate. I enjoyed Dickens in a fictional role as a new man about town.

I enjoyed reading this murder mystery set in 1835 with Charles Dickens as the main character. The book takes the reader back in time to a courtship from days gone by when men treated women with respect and there was none of that hopping into bed on a first date or cursing that saturates the fiction market today.

As clues came to light, the mystery unraveled slowly with many suspects because there were a lot of people who may have gained something from the deaths of two young girls. It definitely kept me guessing. The small details were brought out in the open in a way that was believable.

By the end, the story was neatly wrapped up, and I believe Charles and the young woman who stayed by his side to help solve the murder would be great characters for additional books.

Well, this wasn't my favorite. To me, it dragged and was dull. Don't get me wrong, it had some good points. I enjoyed historical aspect. It just was a struggle for me to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book, which I voluntarily chose to review.

Princess Fuzzypants here: It is an interesting twist to take historical characters and then weave them into a mystery that they must solve. This is the second book that puts a young Charles Dickens into the world of the powerful and wealthy in the late Georgian period. He is a journalist and his employer has a bewitching young daughter, Kate, to whom Charles is attracted. While dining with the family, they hear a scream in the neighbouring mansion that belongs to a titled family. They discover the daughter of the house suffering from a sudden and horrible illness. Charles and Kate care for the poor girl throughout the night until she expires. As tragic as the death is, Charles believes there is more to the story than an accidental illness.
The more he learns, the deeper the mystery and the intrigue. It is a spider’s web of tangled hearts and illicit affairs and out of wedlock children. There is jealousy and class snobbery and not a little madness. Before it is done, three young people will have died and a fourth one is at risk. It is all done in the flavour of the time with an accurate recreation of what London and environs must have been like in the mid 1830’s. Charles, who is only 22, is at the cusp of success as a journalist and writer of sketches. It is interesting to see how the values and beliefs that will repeat throughout his works were born. I was so intrigued, I spent some time researching his life to discover Kate would become his wife a few years later.
It is all done rather well. If you are a fan of historical fiction with a factual twists, you will enjoy this book.
I give it four purrs and two paws up

When I seen this historical mystery about a young Charles Dickens I just couldn't help but grab it. I am glad that I did.

So it's about Charles Dickens and he is a journalist working for Mr. Hogarth. Charles quite fancies his daughter and he was over at their house when they heard a scream from the neighbors and goes to see what happen. So they rush over to see what has happened and find out that one the young ladies fainted, but it's more than that because she ends up very sick and dies.

Lady Lugoson is distraught as it was her daughter who has died and when Dickens hears about another young lady who died the same way. This gets him curious about what might have happened and if they are connected somehow so he starts to investigate. He brings Miss Hogarth with him to call on the Lugosons and she kinda likes going with him to figure things out mostly because she gets to be with him and he likes having her there to for the same reason. 

The more Dickens digs into what happened he opens a whole bunch of secrets about the Lugosons and some others. Some things that others don't want anyone to know about. It gives you a slew of possible suspects which made it really hard to figure out whodunit. I really had no clue till it was revealed. It's also the reason I don't want to say to much about it because I think it's best you find out for yourself. It's a historical so you know it has a bit to do with reputations, etc. 

A lot of the storyline is also about Charles Dickens and Miss Hogarth as he was doing his best to court her and had permission from her father but with threats of not hurting her. Father things. :) So it has a lot of time period romancing along with the mystery. 

I did enjoy the the characters as it was fun having Charles Dickens as a character. He was a very smart character and even the who mystery took him a long time to figure out and even then it wasn't a aha moment or anything it was because something happened. I liked all of the Hogarths and Dicken's brother Fred and their friend William. Overall, just a good cast of characters. 

I would recommend this one to those who love historical mysteries and can't wait to try the next one when it comes out.

A very interesting take on Charles Dicken's early life. I love a good mystery and Ms. Redmond did not disappoint. I will be reading more of this author.

This book is a fun "step back in time" historical mystery (that is obviously not based on life, unless the real Dickens was a secret detective, too). The characters were well-done, but be aware that there is a significant amount of time spent on the growing romance, sometimes to the detriment of moving the mystery along. All in all, an enjoyable and interesting read!

I was really excited to read this book and it was exactly what I wanted. It's based upon the real Charles Dickens (obviously) with some embellishments, ie he didn't really solve crimes (that I know of). I liked how his future wife and in-laws, and even his own family members were featured. His family and the Hogarth family are lovely and add some nice dimensions to the novel.

The mystery is different in that the one trying to solve it, doesn't really have access to everything he needs to. Dickens is considered middle-class, so him questioning people is harder than in most mystery novels. It does lead to some interesting interactions with Kate though, all of which are very cute.

I also enjoyed that Dickens had to balance his work with solving this crime, since most other detectives don't usually have that problem. No spoilers, but things start sadly and perhaps slowly with one death and then it just gets bigger than Dickens ever thought it would. There are some nice twists and turns, with nearly everyone not a Dickens or Hogarth seeming to be a viable suspect.

The one thing I will say, is don't google Dickens or Kate until after reading this. I learned from personal experience because I'm curious and was awfully sad. Real life is not as cute as novels, obviously, but I like the character of Dickens better than the real life version.

I requested this from NetGalley because the cover was pretty and it’s a Dicken’s inspired novel! I like (and know enough) about his work that fanfic like this is interesting and something that I would like to try reading.

In A Tale of Two Murders, Charles Dickens is drawn into the role of a detective when the girl living next to his editor is murdered. Because another girl in the neighbourhood died the same way a year ago, and stricken by the lovely Kate Hogarth, his editor’s daughter, Dickens decides to find the truth of what happened.

Though he isn’t part of the upper class, the mother of the dead girl, Lady Lugoson, also suspects murder and she helps to open doors. However, Dickens soon comes across family secrets and he must decide which of the many suspects is the actual culprit.

To be honest, this book started off a little slowly for me. For some reason, I found the language a little clunky, which made immersing myself in the story and the time period harder. It was only after a few chapters that I managed to get into the rhythm of the story and start to wonder about who killed poor Miss Lugoson.

Apart from the language, one thing that made it harder for me to get into the story was that the murder plot wasn’t the most dominant. I felt that the start of the book was preoccupied with Dicken’s budding relationship with Kate Hogarth and that influenced his actions more than getting to the truth. While their romance is very sweet and I admire Kate for knowing what she wants and sticking to it, it felt like half or more the story was a romance, which wasn’t what I wanted to read.

Speaking of Kate, I really liked her character! She’s a sensible young lady, and it was refreshing to see the female lead portrayed as equally capable as the male lead. Although she couldn’t be there when Dickens made some important discoveries because they weren’t married, I like how she spoke her mind and wasn’t afraid to contradict Dickens.

I’m not too sure about how accurate the portrayal of Dickens was, though. He seems like a idealist romantic here, but I have read that his marriage didn’t go very smoothly, so I do wonder how accurately the book portrayed him.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable book. It took some time for me to get into the story, but I enjoyed it once I was caught up. If you’re a fan of Charles Dickens, you’ll probably want to give it a try.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.