It's completely inconsequential, but Simmons styles Drood's father as Lord Lucan, a Radical MP who was horribly murdered.

Dude.

You don't name fictional characters who surround real people with names that are already in existence. There was a Lord Lucan in the 1800s, and he most certainly wasn't murdered. Sure, it's a name that sounds good, and there is, of course, the connection with the real Lord Lucan who disappeared in the 1970s (and was the 8th Lord Lucan), but seriously. Choose a different name when you're going to have someone horribly murdered. That's just lazy.

When I explained this to Tim, he was more concerned that a Lord could be an MP. Apparently impossible.



As for Wilkie Collins: he was a fairly unsavoury chap, really. I suspect it's not libel when things are true. For all that, though, I do get the feeling that Simmons prefers Collins' works to Dickens. I can explain that to you better in person than in words.

I agree that it is completely over the top, and almost definitely over long. I'm just 200 odd pages in and I already wish it was finished.