Immortalised To Death

Author: Lyn Squire

Genre: Historical Thriller Crime Mystery

Series: The Dunston Burnett Trilogy series book 1 of 3

Publisher: Level best Books

Date Published: 2023

Book Length: 272

Star Rating: 4 ***** I liked it a lot and recommend

About Book: Death strikes England's foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens's unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his fascinating Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. Convinced that the identity of Dickens's murderer lies in the book's missing denouement, Dickens's nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle's half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England's greatest novelist and exposes the author's long-held secret.

My Thoughts: Immortalised to Death by Lyn Squires is an historical mystery, crime thriller book set in 1870 surrounding the death of Charles Dickens and one of my favourite mix of genre’s to read. The book is a different mystery book to those I normally read and was a refreshing change. The book dissects the last unpublished novel to try to uncover the culprit of Charles Dickens death. The book is full of gentle twists and turns and true to the historical period, that slowly examines the writings to reveal the real players that the story is based on.

However, there are a plethora of players in the book, and I didn’t feel that there was enough substance to some of them, but I did love the main protagonist Dunston as a character and look forward to reading more books about him.

I did love the quotes throughout the book, and there were a number of them that I could have chosen to mention but a couple of my favourites are…..

‘But Dunston did have an enormous reservoir of perseverance, and side tracking him was more difficult than prising a knuckle bone from a bulldogs mouth.’ And …….

‘At last, he displayed all the bustle if rushing, but not the speed, his gait, a particular combination of scuttling crab and waddling duck, allowed at best an awkward trot.’

In conclusion I think this is a great first book in the trilogy of Dunston Burnett, a book that was delivered at a gentle speed and felt authentic against the backdrop of Victorian Britain. You do not have to be a fan of Charles Dickens to enjoy this book and I recommend it to those who love a mixture of history and mystery.