This is a gigantic book, supposedly written by Wlkie Collins about his great friend Charles Dickens. Except that, lost in pints of laudenum, doses of opium and eventually morphine, he comes to believe that both he and Dickens have been taken over by an evil creature called Drood, and he believes that he has to kill Dickens.
   That is the bare bones. The plot is wonderfully complex and tightly knitted.  The characters are beautifully drawn, especially that of the narrator Collins.  There is humour, horror, invocation of life in England in the mid 1800's.
   It is a wonderful book.  If you buy one book during 2011, make sure it is this one.