Bestselling author Anne Perry edits this intriguing collection of Dickens-inspired mystery novellas.  I have to admit, I am not familiar with much of his work, so some of the characters would have had more impact had I read all of Charles Dickens masterpieces.  However, I did have favorites that I plan on reading time and again.

In Lillian Stewart Carl's A Stake Of Holly, Tiny Tim, now called Tim, visits Scrooge on his deathbed.  There Scrooge asks Tim to solve a mystery that has bothered Scrooge.  Since ghosts are the spirits of those trapped here on earth, who were the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come?

Martin Edwards' The House Of The Red Candle is by far my favorite.  Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins get caught up in a baffling murder.  Thaddeus Whiteacre is found stabbed and tied to the bed of a local "lady" named Bella.  Despite barred windows and only one exit, Bella has vanished.  No one left the house, so how did she disappear?

Scrogged: A Cyber Christmas Carol moves the Scrooge-modeled character into the present, into a world where computers help get the job done.  Scroggs is certain that Marlowe was murdered, but how can he prove that it wasn't suicide?  Author Carole Nelson Douglas pens a witty look at a modern day Scrooge.

In all, readers will find eleven stories that cover the realm of Dickens' characters and tales.  The writing is incredible, and I think a must read for anyone who enjoys a good mystery and some vivid imagery.  In P.N. Elrod's contribution, she talks of "The chill night air was deadly damp as only England can make it and rife with the slimy stink of dead fish."  This description sums up a cold, damp English night.  I reminds me of nights on the harbor in my mother's coastal hometown.  The image will stay with me for a long time.