His last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, remains a mystery

Dickens had completed the first part of The Mystery of Edwin Drood before he passed away. When he passed away from a stroke in 1870, this book was still unfinished. Edwin Drood, a young man engaged to Rosa Bud, was the subject of the tale. John Jasper, Rosa's uncle, and Neville from Ceylon both liked her. Sadly, Edwin and Rosa called off their engagement, and shortly after that he vanished. Dickens, the author, made no mention of Edwin's possible fate. Was he killed? If so, was Uncle John the perpetrator? Through radio programs and television movies, a number of media have made an effort to change the conclusion of this love story.

The idea that Edwin's uncle John Jasper perpetrated the murder is one of the more popular ones. Jasper maintained a double life as a choirmaster and an opium addict. He also harbored affections for Rosa Bud, his nephew's future fiancée. Conversations Dickens had prior to his passing seem to confirm this theory. John Forester, a personal friend of Dickens, said that the author told him Jasper had truly murdered Drood. His son Charley Dickens asserted that he had been told by his father that Drood had truly passed away. Some people believe Edwin Drood wasn't genuinely dead, just like John Harmon in the film Our Mutual Friend. The lack of Edwin's body lends credence to this theory.