Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless.

[3] At the death of Dickens on 9 June 1870, the novel was left unfinished in his writing desk,[4] only six of a planned twelve instalments having been written.

He left no detailed plan for the remaining instalments or solution to the novel's mystery, and many later adaptations and continuations by other writers have attempted to complete the story.

The reconciliation dinner is successful and at midnight Edwin Drood and Neville Landless leave together to go down to the river and look at a storm that rages that night.

Neville leaves early in the morning for his hike; the townspeople overtake him and forcibly bring him back to the city.

The next morning, Mr Crisparkle goes to the river weir and finds Edwin's watch and chain and shirt pin.

Mr Grewgious arranges for Rosa to rent a place from Mrs Billickin and for Miss Twinkleton to live with her there for respectability.

This time, she follows him all the way to his home in Cloisterham; outside it she meets Datchery, who tells her Jasper's name and that he will sing in the cathedral service the next morning.

"What should you think of the idea of a story beginning in this way?—Two people, boy and girl, or very young, going apart from one another, pledged to be married after many years—at the end of the book.

This was laid aside; but it left a marked trace on the story as afterwards designed, in the position of Edwin Drood and his betrothed.

Planned instalments never published: Supplying a conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood has occupied writers from Dickens's death to the present day.

The first, by Robert Henry Newell, published under the pen name Orpheus C. Kerr in 1870,[10] was as much a parody as a continuation, transplanting the story to the United States.

In 1873, a Brattleboro, Vermont, printer, Thomas Power James, published a version which he claimed had been literally 'ghost-written' by him channelling Dickens's spirit.

John C. Walters dismissed it with contempt, stating that the work "is self-condemned by its futility, illiteracy, and hideous American mannerisms; the mystery itself becomes a nightmare, and the solution only deepens the obscurity.

On 7 January 1914 the Dickens Fellowship organised a dramatic "trial" in the King's Hall, Covent Garden, in which John Jasper stood accused of the murder of Edwin Drood.

Authors and scholars Arthur Waugh, C. Sheridan Jones and Mrs Laurence Clay, played Crisparkle, Bazzard and Helena Landless respectively, while the part of John Jasper was taken by amateur actor Frederick T.

[20] The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, Shaw stating that it was a compromise on the grounds that there was not enough evidence to convict Jasper but that they did not want to run the risk of being murdered in their beds.

On 5 and 12 January 1953, the CBS Suspense radio programme aired a two-part adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

[28] The cast included Francis de Wolff as the Narrator, John Gabriel as John Jasper, Mary Wimbush as Princess Puffer, Patrick Barr as Crisparkle, Malcolm Terris as Edwin Drood, Rosalind Shanks as Rosa, Nigel Graham as Neville Landless, Isabel Rennie as Helena Landless and Denys Blakelock as Mr Grewgious.

A five-part adaptation based on the Leon Garfield completion written by David Buck and directed by Gordon House was broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial from 3 to 30 March 1990.

[30] The cast included Ian Holm as Jasper, John Moffatt as Datchery, Gareth Thomas as Crisparkle, Michael Cochrane as Tartar, Timothy Bateson as Sapsea, Gordon Gostelow as Durdles and Anna Cropper as Mrs Tope; Mary Wimbush reprised her 1965 role of Princess Puffer and John Gabriel returned to play the role of Mr Grewgious.

A 10-part adaptation in 15-minute daily episodes, this time written by Mike Walker and directed by Jeremy Mortimer, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 21 December 2020 to 1 January 2021.

[31] The cast included Pippa Nixon as Kate Dickens (who acts as both narrator and commentator), Joel MacCormack as John Jasper, Isabella Inchbald as Rosa, Damian Lynch as Crisparkle, Rachel Atkins as Princess Puffer, Maanuv Thiara as Neville Landless, Halema Hussain as Helena Landless, Peter Davison as Mr Grewgious and Iwan Davies as Edwin Drood.

Some characters, including Lt Tartar and Mayor Sapsea, are omitted from this version and Bazzard, though mentioned by Mr Grewgious, does not appear.

Following almost immediately upon Charles Dickens's death, playwrights and theatre companies have mounted versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood with varying degrees of popularity, success, and faithfulness to the original work.

Because Dickens's book was left unfinished, the musical hinges upon a novel idea: the audience decides by vote which of the characters is the murderer.

The show ran for ten weeks in the West End in 1987 starring Ernie Wise as Edwin Cartwright.

The cast included former Coronation Street star Wendi Peters as Princess Puffer, with Natalie Day as Edwin Drood, Daniel Robinson as John Jasper and Victoria Farley as Rosa Bud.

[34] A Broadway revival by the Roundabout Theatre Company during the 2012–2013 season[35] was directed by Scott Ellis and starred Chita Rivera as Princess Puffer and Stephanie J.

The final "Murderer" tabulations assigned to each of the characters and the identity of "Datchery" were displayed overhead on chalkboards in the foyer, visible to the departing audience.