THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, Dickens's last novel, left unfinished when he died in June 1870, is set in an English cathedral town. It tells the potentially sordid tale of an opium addict, John Jasper; Rosa Bud, the woman he loves; Edwin Drood, who disappears during a Christmas Eve storm; and Dick Datchery, the detective in charge of the case, who is obviously not what he seems. Although many endings to the tangled story have been proposed, Dickens's intentions are unknown.