This book reminds me of a daytime soap opera. People arrive on the scene, die unexpectedly and dramatically disappear only to make an even more dramatic timely re-entrance. Dramatic co-incidences abound and are essential to the plot. Maybe this is as a direct result of its original serialisation by Dickens?

Overall, it’s a fun read. I found it easier to listen to on audio (due to Dickens long sentences) and the narrator (David Timson) was so good that I recognised voices of returning characters which were supposed to have a dramatic reveal later in the book. This book has a very large cast of characters so that was no insignificant achievement. I was having syncing problems with the book and ended up rereading huge chunks of this already chunky book but loved them too much to bother fast forwarding.

Overall this is recommended for those who like a good Soap Opera written by a very talented classical author.