Through a mist of decay and opium Dickens weaves a tale of murder and mystery in this his last novel. Set in the fictional cathedral town of Cloisterham John Jasper the choir-master takes an obsessive interest in his nephew Edwin Drood and his fiancEe Rosa Bud. But when young Edwin disappears on Christmas Eve has Jasper killed him? Alas we'll never know as Dickens died before completing the novel. It is an intriguing enigmatic and also richly comic story showing that Dickens was at the peak of his powers to the very end.