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J.C. Briggs
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The Waxwork Man (Charles Dickens Investigations Book 11) Kindle Edition

by J. C. Briggs (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 295 ratings
Another chilling case for Charles Dickens and Superintendent Sam Jones! Perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Victorian crime mysteries, A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield.

Dickens investigates a death witnessed only by waxwork women…

London, 1851

While visiting Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, Charles Dickens crosses paths with Sir Fabian Quarterman, a judge famed for his ruthlessness in court.

Dickens reluctantly accepts an invitation to accompany Quarterman back to his mansion, where he claims to keep a gallery of waxworks that surpass Madame Tussaud’s. To his dismay, Dickens finds that they are all effigies of women who were sentenced to death or who died in brutal circumstances.

The day after Dickens’s visit, Quarterman is found dead in his gallery, his face frozen in an expression of terror. When Dickens views the scenewith Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street, he believes that one of the waxwork women is missing.

Though the cause of Quarterman’s death is assumed to be apoplexy, Dickens is convinced that there are more sinister forces at work. And when waxwork women begin mysteriously appearing around London and two more men are found dead in suspicious circumstances, Dickens and Jones must once again embark on a search for a deranged criminal…

What happened to the missing waxwork? Did someone seek revenge on the judge?

And can Dickens unearth the secrets of the dead…?

The Waxwork Manis the eleventh urban mystery in J. C. Briggs’ literary historical series, the Charles Dickens investigations, a traditional British detective series set in Victorian London.

The Charles Dickens Investigations Series:
BOOK ONE: The Murder of Patience Brooke
BOOK TWO: Death at Hungerford Stairs
BOOK THREE: Murder by Ghostlight
BOOK FOUR: The Quickening and the Dead
BOOK FIVE: At Midnight In Venice
BOOK SIX: The Redemption Murders
BOOK SEVEN: The Mystery of the Hawke Sapphires
BOOK EIGHT: The Chinese Puzzle
BOOK NINE: Summons to Murder
BOOK TEN: The Jaggard Case
BOOK ELEVEN: The Waxwork Man
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  1. Book 11 of 11
    Charles Dickens Investigations
  2. Print length
    337 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    September 15, 2023
  6. File size
    2.9 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C8J8FDYP
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sapere Books
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 15, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.9 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0854950881
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Book 11 of 11 ‏ : ‎ Charles Dickens Investigations
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 295 ratings

About the author

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J.C. Briggs

J.C. Briggs

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I write historical crime fiction. My amateur detective is the great Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens. Dickens was fascinated by crime and murder. He went out with the London Police into the grim slums of London and visited the police stations to see how they all worked. According to a recent biographer, Dickens would have enjoyed being a detective. I gave him his wish. He makes a good detective - he is very observant, very clever at working out motive and following the clues with his partner, Superintendent Jones of Bow Street.

Victorian London is a great setting for a murder mystery - all that fog and very sinister alleys. It is fascinating to research the period from Dickens's own novels, the biographies and Dickens's letters. I like to know what he's up to in the periods of his life when the stories take place. All the books are based on something which really happened in Dickens's life. He set up a home for fallen women. I wondered what he would do if one of the girls was murdered and that was the idea for the first book.

When I'm not reading Dickens or writing Dickens, I give talks about him and other Victorian novelists and enjoy my garden in the Yorkshire Dales.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Cheryl Greene
    5.0 out of 5 stars Charles Dickens solves another one
    Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Dickens is involved in a multilayered mystery with Scotland Yard. There are several disappearances , multiple motives and many people intertwined with victims in the past and present to investigate and untangle which thicken the plot and bewildered the investigators and the reader. Intricate plot twists and multi layered histories of the characters. All is skillfully wrapped up in the finale and kept me guessing til the end which is wonderfully gratifying to me and other readers.
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  • AnnieB
    4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and atmospheric
    Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023
    Summons to Murder is the 11th Charles Dickens investigation by J.C. Briggs. Released 15th Sept 2023 by Sapere Books, it's 314 pages (print edition) and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book (along with the rest of the series) is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

    This is a engagingly well written and plotted historical mystery series with three dimensional characters and a commendable Dickens vibe in the situations, settings, and characterizations. I've enjoyed these historical mysteries set in the middle of the 19th century in London and environs. Fictional sleuth Dickens is clever, loyal, dogged, and practical and his friendship and cooperative investigation with superintendent Sam Jones makes for engaging and entertaining reading. The plots are always convoluted and well engineered, full of twists and surprises. The story itself is written around a framework of real historical events and people and so well entwined that it's not always apparent where reality shades over into fiction. Each of the mysteries works well as a standalone with a self contained mystery, plotline, denouement, and resolution.

    This installment is quite macabre in places and has a definitely spooky vibe with lots of jump scares and bizarre twists. Waxwork figures are creepy by definition and this volume is *full* of outré characters and events. Perfect for Hallowe'en reading.

    Four stars.

    Overall, it's a good read and a quality example of the historical-person-as-amateur-sleuth sub-genre. With 11 books extant in the series it would be a good choice for a long weekend's binge/buddy read.
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  • K. Carlson
    5.0 out of 5 stars A whole new Charles Dickens!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024
    London, 1851

    While visiting Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, Charles Dickens crosses paths with Sir Fabian Quarterman, a judge famed for his ruthlessness in court. Dickens reluctantly accepts an invitation to accompany Quarterman back to his mansion, where he claims to keep a gallery of waxworks that surpass Madame Tussaud’s. To his dismay, Dickens finds that they are all effigies of women who were sentenced to death or who died in brutal circumstances. The day after Dickens’s visit, Quarterman is found dead in his gallery, his face frozen in an expression of terror. When Dickens views the scenewith Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street, he believes that one of the waxwork women is missing. Though the cause of Quarterman’s death is assumed to be apoplexy, Dickens is convinced that there are more sinister forces at work. And when waxwork women begin mysteriously appearing around London and two more men are found dead in suspicious circumstances, Dickens and Jones must once again embark on a search for a deranged criminal. I have a whole new appreciation of Charles Dickens this. He makes an excellent detective. This was an enthralling mystery and highly enjoyable read. I hope there are more in this series.
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  • John R. Sheehan
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment
    Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I was intrigued with the sub-title “Charles Dickens Investigations – Book 11”

    I had not read any of the first 10 book, or even was aware of their existence but the idea of Dickens as an investigator caught my fancy. I was seriously disappointed and although I have a rule of finishing a book once I have started, in this case I abandoned the rule with a clear conscience. The writing is turgid, the plot hopelessly complex, the dialogue yawning and while it is always good to have a book to help falling asleep, even that wasn’t worth continuing. Other than characters recognizing Mr. Dickens occasionally, there is nothing of the real Dickens and his own peculiarities to make the character unusual or even interesting. He has the odd street boy – reminiscent of Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars – but even that doesn’t work. Nope – I have no idea how it ends – quite honestly I am still somewhat confused about the plot – and even less interest in finding out. Yawn.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • William Smith
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wax Lyrical
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Another terrific Victorian crime yarn from the pen of J C Briggs. A great deal of research has obviously gone into the fixation at the time with waxwork displays and a visit to Mme Tussaud's by Charles Dickens sets the story in motion after he is invited by a former Judge to view his own personal collection; a series of women who gained public notoriety after being sentenced by him.

    The subsequent death of the Judge and the absence of one of the waxworks leads to further investigation by Superintendent Jones after it is established that the Judge's demise, although from natural causes, was encouraged by external and deliberate interference.

    Grotesque waxworks begin to appear randomly all over London as the murderer teases those trying to track him down. However, as with all J C Briggs plot lines, all is not necessarily as it seems as the story weaves it's way through the mire of the capital's back alleys and numerous unsavoury characters.

    The case, for the first time in the series, also brings matters close to home as Jones' family life is threatened like never before and calls him to question his own vocation and dedication to the job.

    The ending is as unexpected as it is gruesome. Whatever you think will happen at the conclusion I can almost certainly assure you that you'll be wrong.

    As always with the author, the research is impeccable. Mme Tussaud's is obviously the most famous of the waxwork museums but it seems that these 'exhibitions' popped up all over the place and were of varying quality. But the Victorians flocked to them. If you ever go to a display and one of the waxworks appears to move ever so slightly, you may actually not be mistaken.

    Great stuff.
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  • Barbara
    4.0 out of 5 stars It is once again up to Dickens and Jones to solve this most bizarre murder in Victorian London.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Having read all the other 12 books in this series by JC Briggs, I knew I was in for a good read. The great plus about reading JCB's books, is that, after we finish the story and close the book, not only will we have been royally entertained but will have learned a great deal about the teeming life of London in mid Victorian times. In this latest novel not only do we follow Dickens and Jones on the track of a bizarre murder mystery but we find out about waxwork figures, the manufacture of them and the Victorians fascination with them. Readers will be amazed at the unusual and interesting facts which the author shares ,We, the reader, can only be impressed by the thorough research undertaken which makes these novels so worth reading.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars really good read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Not only a great mystery story but the interesting facts about Victorian London wonderful characters apart from dickens and jones
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    A very enjoyable read with well formed characters and a great story that entertains and gives you an insight into the lives of many during the Victorian era. I love the Charles Dickens Investigations series and I am always looking forward to reading the new books that are published. JC Briggs is definitely on a par with the great man himself, Mr Charles Dickens.
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  • langcliffe
    4.0 out of 5 stars Dickens and jones triumph again
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Another in the JC Briggs Dickens and Jones series. Comprehensively researched with a splendid and engaging plot, this is undoubtedly an example of superb historical fiction.
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