This is a genuinely entertaining and well written historical mystery interwoven into a framework of historical fact. The dialogue and plotting are well paced and the setting (early Victorian Manchester) is enough of a departure from the almost de rigueur London to add another level of enjoyment for me. The characters are very well drawn and the plot is well paced. My only minor quibble with the characterizations is the slightly twee inclusion of secondary characters throughout the books who figure heavily into the historical Dickens' actual oeuvre. I don't doubt that Dickens used real people as inspirations for his characters - there's enough actual canonical documentation to prove that he did. I just found it distracting that one popped up every couple of chapters in this book.
Possibly worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library. This is a fun and worthwhile series especially for lovers of historical British crime fiction.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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