On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, fifty-three-year-old Charles Dickens–at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world–hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens’s life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens’s friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), Drood explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author’s last years. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, Drood is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.
Winner of the Hugo Award, several Bram Stoker and Locus Awards, and a pair of World Fantasy Awards, Dan Simmons, author of 32 novels, is widely accepted as one of the giants of SFF. He passed away in 2026.
View titles by Dan Simmons
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, fifty-three-year-old Charles Dickens–at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world–hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens’s life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens’s friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), Drood explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author’s last years. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, Drood is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.
Author
Winner of the Hugo Award, several Bram Stoker and Locus Awards, and a pair of World Fantasy Awards, Dan Simmons, author of 32 novels, is widely accepted as one of the giants of SFF. He passed away in 2026.
View titles by Dan Simmons
