This is my second Dickens and Jones outing and as with the first, it was not a bad book at all. However, I did find reading it a little like attempting to grasp a handful of smoke. The story was there in vague outline, but I just kept finding it slipping away from me every time I thought I had finally gotten hold of it. The reason for this was quite manifold, but not least was the absolute wealth of characters. There are quite a few main characters in these books anyway, and so many minor characters drift in and out that it is rather like, ahem, a Dickens novel. Keeping a handle of the whys and wherefores of so many characters, as well as trying to get a handle on a rather nebulous plot AND trying to solve a murder mystery - it was all a little overwhelming.

I have to say that, quaint as it was at first, it is becoming somewhat irksome having virtually every character that appears compared to a character one of Dickens' own novels. I think that this particular quirk is wearing rather thin and it now earns a heavy sigh rather than the indulgent smile of old.

Once again I find the character of Sam Jones rather lacking, and I'm not sure why. Jones is likeable enough, but he just seems to pale every time. Whenever he and Dickens investigate together he fades into the background completely, despite the fact that he is the actual official policeman, and when he investigates alone, his character is in no way strong enough to carry a scene. Dickens does rather dominate the book, as is only to be expected, but one feels one should get a little more value from Jones since he IS supposed to be a Superintendent of Police. Such a high rank, yet he behaves more like a beat constable.,

This may seem like scathing criticism, but it was actually a good, entertaining book and I look forward to reading the others in the series, and any new additions.

The Chinese Puzzle is the eighth book in this cosy Victorian murder mystery series in which Charles Dickens help to solve crimes alongside his detective friend Jones. It’s worth reading all the books as - although they each follow a different murder mystery – the sub plots involving their personal lives continue through each instalment.
This novel is set during the time of the Great Exhibition and it’s while visiting the famous exhibition that Cornelius Mornay a wealthy retired banker seemingly vanishes without a trace. Also on the same day and at the same place another man has disappeared – a possible Chinese assassin who came very close to Queen Victoria. Is there a connection between the two men and their disappearance? The investigation must be kept very hush hush and when Jones is tasked with discovering what happened to Mornay his good friend Dickens is keen to help him - especially as he has connections within that area of society.
I have read all the books in this series and I cannot recommend them enough. A huge amount of research has gone into these books and as someone who has read a great many biographies of Dickens, I really think that Brigg’s portrayal of him is absolutely perfect. The writing depicts the Victorian setting perfectly and there are no modern expressions or idiosyncrasies. The books are so atmospheric and I can almost hear the carriages riding through the fog filled streets as I am reading this series. The writing as also very addictive and the pacing is absolutely perfect.
I really recommend this books and the whole series especially if you love classics or historical fiction. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

First of all, I want to say thank you to NetGalley and Sapere Books for this review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is the eighth installment in the series. For me, sincerely, this story is really heavy. I finished it but it is really heavy. I have to stop many times before continuing reading it again. I do not know what is the exact reason, but it is really heavy for me. Because this is the eighth book, there are some references to characters and cases from previous books, but it does not interrupt the main flow of the story. There are a quite number of characters in this story, but thankfully managed to catch up with many of them. The characterization is good enough in my view. In my opinion, the chapters on average are not too long, but intense because the reader needs to discern many information in mostly every chapter. The descriptions used by the author are quite detailed, and because many places are stated in the book, I do not really remember all of them. In conclusion, even though the story is really heavy for me, the case is compelling enough for me to keep reading it until the end because for me, the story is worth reading. Plus, I pity some of the characters in this story.

London 1851 the Great Exhibition has opened and it is so attractive to the masses of visitors who keep coming and coming to gape at all the wonders of the world exhibited in one spot.

This mystery which covers Canton and London covering the Chinese who are involved in trade and who have lived in London and the Englishmen who have made their fortune in goods ranging from Opium to Tea from China.

When a high ranking person is found murdered, Dickens is asked to help Superintendent Jones discreetly handle the enquiry. When it is revealed that their are so many controversial threads coming up - the opium trade, a Chinese wife, children living in London and questions regarding a second will and then the unsavory elements of the London underground Dickens and Jones have to get justice served and also with no publicity. When the body count starts rising they know that it is a cover up for a cover up by one particular man who is going to be very hard to catch.

Told in such beautiful language and tone, this was a delight to read. A must for those who love history, as well as this setting of the 1850s in England and for those who love vintage detective mystery.

The Chinese Puzzle is the 8th installment in a mystery series involving the esteemed author Charles Dickens as an investigator when he is not writing or editing. This is the first book of this series I have read, but I did not find it difficult to get into or follow the characters. It was clear there was history between some of the players, but it did not pull me out of the story or detract from my reading experience. As a stand-alone book, it functions well.

That said, however, I did not find The Chinese Puzzle to be what I expected from historical fiction. Or rather I should say, what I prefer. I would call this story 'plot-driven' as opposed to 'character-driven,' and I prefer the latter. That does not say that the story isn't well-researched, well-written, and entertaining, because it is. For me, however, the amount of description of the setting (other than London weather), garb, and atmosphere that is present in much historical fiction was absent in this book. Instead, dialogue powers the formation of characters, and it is enough to distinguish them from one another and create interest for the reader.

It may be because this is book #8 in the series that descriptions are at a minimum, as well. I would be remiss not to acknowledge that possibility.

I enjoyed the story and the history involved in the events surrounding the murder in this book, along with the many dialects of English that were included. It has good pace, tension, and action, with a reprehensible villain you can't wait to hate. The Chinese Puzzle is a solid novel telling of the darker side of society in a tumultuous time. Fans of the series will be happy to have more exploits of the famous author in his London.

An enjoyable mystery with Charles Dickens helping out in the investigation and a smattering of characters reminiscent of characters from Dickens’ books. I didn’t realise this was book 8! until after I’d started reading but it can be read as a stand-alone although there are references to previous mysteries and I assume characters that have appeared in the earlier books. A bit of a fun read!

The Chinese Puzzle is the 8th Charles Dickens investigation by J.C. Briggs. Released 28th Feb 2021 by Sapere Books, it's 336 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 (and the rest of the series) is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This is a very well written and plotted historical mystery series with three dimensional characters and a Dickensian vibe. I've really enjoyed these historical mysteries set in the middle of the 19th century in London and environs. Charles 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 and this one is no exception.

Whilst an entertaining read, I did find myself struggling sometimes with the plethora of secondary characters and keeping all the lawyers, clergy, hostlers, drudges, shopkeepers, and servants straight was taxing. I found myself having to check back in the story to remember which family was which. It's a relatively minor problem though, and considering the high quality of the writing, worth the occasional confusion. Having read the book as an ebook, it was not a problem to check who was who with the search function.

The dramatic arc, climax, and denouement are well written and immersive.

Overall, it's a good read and a quality example of the historical-person-as-amateur-sleuth sub-genre. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 is the start of the latest mystery of Charles Dickens and Superintendent Sam Jones. A missing banker who’s past has connections to Canton and the opium trade in London. You really delve into the underbelly of Victorian London with its many public houses and alleyways leading to opium dens. Dickens and Jones are lead on a very convoluted trail through high society and the theatre to fill in the gaps of this exciting mystery. The characters are very relatable and would be worth following in future.
I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

‘This is a mystery of a particularly sensitive nature—a Chinese puzzle, you might say.’

London, 1 May 1851. At the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations a Chinese junk captain, posing as a mandarin envoy from the Celestial Court, manages to penetrate the security surrounding the Queen. Another Chinese man, initially thought to be associated with the ersatz mandarin, gets close to Queen Victoria and then disappears. Given the anarchist unrest and previous attempts on the Queen’s life, these incursions are taken very seriously. The Prime Minister orders an urgent, discreet, investigation. The investigation is allocated to Superintendent Sam Jones from Bow Street.

On the same day, Cornelius Mornay, a wealthy retired businessman from Canton goes missing. Could there be a connection?

Fortunately for Superintendent Jones, his good friend Charles Dickens is available to assist with his enquiries. Charles Dickens has several connections which may prove helpful. A few days later, Mr Mornay’s body is found in the river near Wapping. Foul play is suspected.

What follows is a convoluted journey through the mean streets of London: from the opium dens to the homes of the rich. Mr Mornay was once connected to the opium trade and seems to have had many secrets.

This is the eighth book in Ms Briggs’s ‘Charles Dickens Investigations Series’, and while it can be read as a standalone, the series is worth reading in order because of the development of the main characters. For me, these characters have become old friends. Readers of Charles Dicken’s novels will recognise the connections to some of the characters in his novels.

‘What a city for contrasts London was: the Queen in her palace of many rooms and the poor Chinese man in his opium den, and nothing to link them but two beating hearts.’

A thoroughly enjoyable addition to the series!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Another enjoyable book in the series! J. C. Briggs is a fabulous writer so when I see anything written by her, I'm on it. Being a huge Dickens fan doesn't hinder, either. I love how Briggs uses factual historical events such as London's Great Exhibition in 1851, real character mentions such as Gaskell, Collins, Thackery and Bulwer-Lytton (all of whom I adore) and loads of historical references such as clothing, urchins, food, customs, culture, transportation and so on. We see glimpses into both Canton and London.

This time Superintendent Sam Jones asks his friend Charles Dickens to help him track down a missing person. Make that personS. Opium is a big deal in London in 1851 and is involved here, in spades. So, when you have opium exporters and importers and users, rampant crime and murder follow. The body of prominent Cornelius Mornay shows up...dead...and secrets are sought and exposed. And, of course, these secrets affect many people. I like Dickens' philanthropy in procuring help from urchins. The story winds and wends as mysteries deepen and grow as dark as the filthy back streets.

Do read the fascinating historical notes and teaser at the end!

If you're a historical fiction reader seek out this delightful series. It reminds me of Charles Finch in the use of facts sprinkled throughout.

My sincere thank you to Sapere Books and NetGalley for the privilege of reading the enthralling eARC.

Sam Jones and Charles Dickens team up to find a retired banker and merchant to China, Cornelius Mornay, under strict orders of secrecy. And so, starts the tale, murder, opium abuse and trade, family secrets, double lives, theatre, fist fights, and many historical insights. A book full of detail and required my full attention, didn’t want to miss a thing. This book number 8th but I was OK reading it as a standalone but I feel somethings would have been clearer if I had read the others.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sapere Books for a delightful introduction to this series, and for the chance to read this book for my honest opinion.

It is the first of May 1851, the day the great exhibition and the Chrystal Palace is opened by the queen and prince-consort. During this opening, a Chinese junk captain poses as a mandarin envoy from the Celestial Court. With all the threats of anarchist complots and previous attempts on the queen’s life, this indiscretion is seen as very serious by those in law enforcement but a joke to the newspapers. Another Chinese man, first thought to be the mandarin’s secretary, disappears. Not much later it’s brought to the attention of Superintendent Sam Jones of How Street that a well-connected banker and formerly a merchant in Canton, has also gone missing. This disappearance must be treated with the utmost discretion and tact and Mr Jones asks for the help of his good friend, the writer Charles Dickens. A few days later, Mornay’s murdered body is found in the river near Wapping. Soon it becomes clear that he had a second family and was also involved in the opium trade. Many questions and secrets but no easy answers. The opium merchants and others with ties to Canton have ties to the highest echelons. That’s why the prime minister insists on secrecy and discretion but is it possible that those forces will stop a proper investigation. It looks as if Dickens falls into a hornet’s nest



This is already the 8th book in this series and the relationships between the main characters is long-established. You can read this as a standalone; the relevant events from the past are shortly explained without being boring to the long-term fans.

The fact is that I read another book from another author (a Christmas carol murder by Heather Redmond) last year that also had Charles Dickens as the protagonist albeit him being still unmarried there and still an aspiring journalist. Here he’s already a famous and established writer with fans from every walk of life. At the start of the story, he comments on and shows his disdain for Disraeli’s writing.

Just as in Dickens- own novels, there is a very large cast of characters and the most complex family and business relationships from the past that now come to the horizon. What I thought funny the first time but rather strange when it happened a second time is that Mr Dickens meets people that look and behave like characters from the books he has already written. For one of those, we get an explication at the end of the story. In the other book, it was the other way round, he meets people that end up (somewhat altered) in his stories. The 2 books are very different but nevertheless of equal quality and I’ll have to look out for both series.

I don’t know enough of the real Charles Dickens to say whether or not he’s portrayed just. He appears a bit too good to be true; a loyal and helpful friend, a brilliant investigator with handy acquaintances in all walks of life, unjudgmental and rather modern in his opinions and moral compass. I’ve read other accounts that weren’t very happy with his behaviour towards women, but it’s all hearsay and I’m not in a position to judge that. I remain a huge fan of his books though and no-one can deny that those had a huge impact, not only on literature but on society as a whole.

Well, as they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, here I really was seduced by the lovely artwork on the book. It conveys the atmosphere from the period but also this little closed black door can hide so many sins and secrets.

In this book, the murder mystery takes precedence over the time period. Not that there are mistakes or inconsistencies but I didn’t have that feeling of being transported to the Victorian age. If you change opium with heroin, the story could happen here and now without having to alter much else.

There are some brilliant descriptions of the huge gap between the circumstances and lives of those in opulence and those without anything at all.

I couldn’t really connect with the main characters in this book. They did and said all the right things but I didn’t feel a passion. They felt more like actors than real people and sometimes the conversations feel a bit artificial. That may be the case because the author tries to imitate the speech pattern and idiom of the period. However, there are some delightful minor characters of whom Scrap is the first. I have to read the other books to find out what his backstory is.

An interesting conversation takes place between Dickens and the inspector’s young daughter who’s a firm supporter of the new fashion of women wearing bloomers because she wants to ride a bicycle.

A big theme in this story is the moral hypocrisy of the period. Everyone who traded with the East had Indian or Chinese concubines but no-one should mention them or put them in the public eye, let alone marry them. What were they supposed to do about their offspring, their own sons and daughters with a foreign mother? Let them fend for themselves? At least Mornay and his brother looked after their children. His English son reacts very selfishly to our modern morals but it was a general sentiment at the time, I guess. Another point of ethical conflict is the huge amounts of money made from the opium trade and the disdain for the users and addicts. And I mean that opium was just everywhere, even is baby soothing medicine!

It was definitely a decent book with an interesting crime mystery and storyline. It was a bit too much stretched out and slow-moving at the start. The last third of the book is a lot faster paced and things really start happening and get very suspenseful as well with a chase through a bricked-up plague house and the sewers.

At the end of the book, there is an extensive list of characters. I wish they put those at the beginning of e-books or tell you that it is there as you may not find out until you get there. There is also a very interesting author’s note with historical justifications and details about Dickens’ life and works.

I thank Netgalley and Sapere Books for the free ARC they provided and this is my honest and unbiased review of it.

The Chinese puzzle is the 8th installment in the magnificent Charles Dickens Investigations Series created by the incredible craftswoman JC Briggs and published by Sapere Books.
The murder of Cornelius Mornay, a retired banker and former merchant from Canton, is at the heart of this compelling whodunit teeming with unexpected twists and surprises. Opium traders, drug addicts, family secrets and additional grisly murders will fill Jones and Dickens' somber and suspenseful investigation in a London overflowing with restless crowds eager to visit the city's 1851 Great Exhibition.
Finally, to me, diving into JC Briggs' magnificent series feels like diving right into Charles Dickens magical world. Her novels are captivating, engrossing and unputdownable, full of unforgettable characters and delightful historical details... They have become an addiction and I honestly can't wait for my next fix! To be enjoyed without moderation👍👍

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sapere Books for the opportunity of read this wonderful novel prior to its release date

What can link a missing Chinese man at the Crystal Palace, a dead banker and secret marriages, to the opium trade, if there is one. Superintendent Sam Jones and Charles Dickens investigate.
An entertaining, well-written and well plotted historical mystery with its cast of likeable characters. Another good addition to this series which can easily be read as a standalone story