With chilling scenes in London opium dens and moldy old crypts, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a classic crime novel well worth reading. Even in its half-finished state, Charles Dickens's story provides some generous clues about who killed Edwin Drood and why they did it.
The Victim
Edwin Drood is an amiable orphan set to marry Rosa Bud, the daughter of his father's former business partner. Both Edwin and Rosa are unhappy with their impending marriage, an arrangement they agreed to solely out of respect for their dear, deceased fathers. They have at last summoned the courage to break it off, when Edwin suddenly and mysteriously disappears.
The Likely Suspects
The two most likely murderers in Dickens's book--Neville Landless and John Jasper-- possess the same motive for killing Edwin: they are both infatuated with his fiancée, Rosa. Neville is a troubled and temperamental young student, whose twin sister Helena is boarding at the same house as Rosa. John Jasper is Edwin's uncle, Rosa's music teacher, and a choirmaster at the Cloisterham Cathedral. Both men have means and a motive, but the story seems to implicate one more heavily than the other.
Evidence Pointing To Neville Landless
It is Neville, with his public dislike for Edwin, who quickly becomes the main suspect in the minds of the other characters. After all, Neville purchases a heavy walking stick the very same night he prepares to resolve his feud with Edwin. Then, he and Edwin stroll down to the river late that same evening and watch the ongoing windstorm. Also, Neville is the last to report seeing Edwin alive and he naturally falls under suspicion after Edwin's watch and shirt pin are discovered in the river a few days later.
Evidence Pointing to John Jasper
Despite Neville's unfortunate circumstances, it seems much more likely that John Jasper is the culprit. Evidence for Jasper's guilt begins with his unnatural interest in seeing the tombs in the cathedral graveyard. In a morbidly fascinating scene, Jasper goes on a tour of the crypts with their drunken keeper. It is here that Jasper takes note of a supply of quicklime--- a substance used to speed up the decomposition of corpses.
Then, of course, there is Jasper's intense, almost frightening, devotion to his nephew’s fiancé. In a particularly telling scene, Jasper collapses upon learning that the missing Edwin was planning to break off his engagement with Rosa. Could it be that his state of shock is due to the knowledge he has committed an unnecessary murder?
Finally, there is a strange passage of dialogue between Jasper and the opium peddling hag known as Princess Puffer. The two addicts share a bizarre exchange in which Jasper asks, "Suppose you had something in your mind; something you were going to do . . .Should you do it in your fancy, when you were lying here doing this?" (p. 258). When Princess Puffer says that she would, Jasper admits that he , " . . .did it so often, and through such vast expanses of time, that when it was really done it seemed not worth the doing, it was done so soon" (p. 259).
Famous Continuations
Numerous writers have picked up where Dickens left off, penning their own conclusions to the story. Two of the more famous and well-respect versions were authored by Leon Garfield and Charles Forsythe. Of course, the reader can always do his own literary sleuthing by delving into the fascinating pages of the original Edwin Drood, where the mystery remains forever unsolved.
Sources: Charles Dickens. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Signet Classics, 1961.
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