Chapter I: ‘The Dawn’

John Jasper has a vision of himself during his opium intoxication, in which he murders Ned in a graveyard in Egypt. Having experienced a high level of anxiety, Jasper wakes up to find himself in an opium den.

Second part of Chapter I as well as Chapters II to XXIII belong to Dickens. I have translated them with minor corrections and shortenings.

Chapter XXIV: ‘Walls Have Ears’

Lieutenant Tartar takes Neville for a stroll around the front yard of Staple Inn in order to allow Jasper’s eavesdropper (the doorkeeper of Staple Inn) notice that they are indeed true friends. Neville is reluctant, but eventually he agrees. Neville tells Tartar his life story as they walk in the yard, he also talks about the insults and violence he and his sister Helena had to endure from their stepfather. Not only did he abuse them, but he also cheated them on their rightful inheritance, assuming all of it, then he planned on marrying young Helena to evade any possible legal issues. ‘I was ready to kill him for this!’ Neville shouts. The doorkeeper overhears this and informs Jasper later. Lieutenant Tartar feels really bad about Neville’s story. Moreover, that stepfather’s surname (Billickin) sounds very familiar to him.

Chapter XXV: ‘Near the Vault’

Mr Datchery has a talk with Durdles the Stonemason during a Sunday stroll. He learns about the ‘Moonlight Expedition’ with Jasper which happened about six months ago, as well as about Durdles’s ability to tell what’s behind a wall by tapping at it. Durdles showcases his talent and surprisingly senses a new dead body in Mrs Sapsea’s monument. At first, Mr Datchery doesn’t pay much attention to Durdles’s words, as he thinks the drunk man is simply imagining things, but after a talk with Deputy later on he realises that there might really be Edwin’s remains in the vault. Mr Datchery asks Deputy to breaking the marble plaque with Mrs Sapsea’s epitaph with a stone, hoping that the monument will have to be opened to do the repairs.

Chapter XXVI: ‘Tony and Stephen’

Mr Datchery pays Durdles a visit later that evening. In a conversation he reveals Deputy’s real name (Tony Winks), which explicitly makes Durdles nervous. Datchery then tells him about Tony’s late mother and about Tony’s eloped father whose name was surprisingly Stephen Durdles. The stonemason is struggling to keep calm overwhelmed with fear and regret. He explains that he simply couldn’t return to his bride since he had squandered all his savings on drink, which were initially meant for their wedding. Mr Datchery persuades him to start taking care of his son, and suggests that the stonemason takes Deputy as an apprentice and teaches him his occupation.

Chapter XXVII: ‘Two Letters’

Clerk Bazzard prematurely returns from his leave of absence to Mr Grewgious’s office in London. He says that his father Mr Bazzard Senior is missing. Grewgious consoles his clerk telling him that his father is currently investigating Jasper’s case in Cloisterham in disguise. Grewgious gives his clerk a letter, in which Mr Bazzard Senior (alias Mr Datchery) describes his plan to expose Edwin Drood’s body in Mrs Sapsea’s monument using abilities of Durdles and Deputy. His attempt however is unsuccessful, since the door may not be unlocked because Jasper replaced the key and it does not fit the lock. Shortly after, master and his clerk receive a telegram saying that Mr Datchery have found another way to open the vault and Edwin’s body has been discovered. Grewgious and his clerk Bazzard are heading towards Cloisterham.

Chapter XXVIII: ‘The Investigation’

All citizens in Cloisterham agrees that the dead body belongs to Edwin. But Mr Jasper has doubts about identifying him. The sitting of the coroner’s jury takes place, where a local doctor and the head of the police department give their evidence. The doctor comes to a conclusion that his death was caused by strangling with a black silk scarf which was found in a tomb. A golden female ring is found too and being examined as an evidence. Suddenly Mr Grewgious appears to identify the ring as belonging to Edwin Drood. Jasper fiercely denies it. Clerk Bazzard confirms his master’s words, which forces Jasper to back down. However, he immediately accuses Neville of the murder and demands the court to issue and order for his arrest for the third time.

Chapter XXIX: ‘Defamed and Arrested’

Jasper, Crisparkle and constable Green present London Police with an order of Neville’s immediate arrest and delivery to Cloisterham. Inspector Porters takes the case under his own control. Together they arrive at Staple Inn while inspector take Neville under arrest. Helena tries to protect her brother, but finds little success. Crisparkle encourages the young man to abide by the demands of the police. Jasper can triumph: Neville delivered to Scotland Yard.

Chapter XXX: ‘Interrogation’

Inspector Porters questions Neville about the events of the night of Edwin Drood’s disappearance. He learns that Edwin receives the black scarf as a Christmas gift from Jasper, also that he wears the same scarf when they go to the river with Neville, which by the way, was Jasper’s own idea. Inspector tries to find out what really happened between the two at the river bank, he wants to know whether they had a fight? Neville perseveres in his silence, and after a while inspector finally leaves him alone. Inspector then determines to leave for Cloisterham in order to investigate the case on the spot.

Chapter XXXI: ‘At an Auction ‘Knock-Out’

Mr Sapsea is known for mock auctions, during which he tricks the clients. Inspector Porters exposes the ‘running-up’ process as he arrives in the hall where such an auction is held. It frightens Mr Sapsea a great deal he decides to stop the auction sooner that has been planned. Porters asks Sapsea to hand him ‘the key evidence,’ namely the tomb key that failed to unlock the door to the monument a couple of days ago. Mr Sapsea then tells inspector that the key used to belong to Canon Crisparkle, but was stolen by treacherous Neville Landless, or at least that’s what John Jasper said during the coroner’s trial. During this conversation, the inspector notices a portrait of Mr Sapsea’s deceased wife, who appears to be none other than his old acquaintance Ethelinda Brobity. The fact of the matter is that Mr Porters once fell in love with her younger companion Amalia Twinkleton over fifteen years ago.

Chapter XXXII: ‘The Stolen Inheritance’

Lieutenant Tartar arrives in Cloisterham, where he meets his friend Crisparkle. Together they find inspector Porters. Lieutenant truly believes in Neville’s innocence. Neville does not refer to Edwin, when he says, ‘I was ready to kill him!’, but to his stepfather. Lieutenant Tartar knows exactly what he is talking about, because Neville’s stepfather is his own uncle, moreover, according to his uncle’s will, Tartar inherits all the money that has been stolen from Landlesses. Crisparkle is stunned, but lieutenant consoles his old friend, assuring him that his intention is to return the money to the true heirs. Inspector appreciates his honesty. Lastly, he questions Crisparkle about the event of the morning, when he found Edwin’s watch at the Weir.

Chapter XXXIII: ‘The Unfulfilled Escape’

Helena Landless pays a visit to her brother in Cloisterham prison. Deputy turns out to be Neville’s fellow inmate, who has been imprisoned for breaking the memorial plaque. Helena reveals her plan of escape: having cut her hair short, she looks pretty much like Neville which makes their substitution possible. Her brother is supposed to escape using Helena’s hoodie as a cover. However, Neville refuses to escape as it goes against his sense of honour. Helena questions him about the events of the night of disappears and persuades him to tell everything to inspector Porters. Neville reveals what really happened between him and Edwin by the river bank—Edwin admitted he had fallen in love with Helena. They suddenly hear a baby cry from the neighbouring cell, where a woman is confined with her new-born child. Helena pledges to pay her debts—she is intended to sell her hair.

Chapter XXXIV: ‘The Ruins of the Past’

Tartar and Crisparkle take a stroll by the monastery ruin. Lieutenant talks about his trip to Ceylon and the crimes of his uncle, Mr Billickin—it turns out that his Indian marriage was illegal, since he had already had a wife in England. Mr Billickin has been sending the orphans’ money to Luke Honeythunder for many years pretending to use it for charity. Luke was supposed to save these money in order to eventually return them back in the form of payment for the plantation. Crisparkle is filled with indignation at his cruelty and is determined to search his financial reports for evidence. Having evidence at hand, Tartar returns to London the very next morning, he finds Mr Honeythunder and threatens him with an arrest and persecution. Honeythunder manages to escape the justice as he flees to Australia.

Chapter XXXV: ‘The Fog Mixed Out’

Durdles and Datchery meet Deputy as he is being released from prison the next morning. Together with the boy they go to the pawnshop to buy him some new clothes. There they encounter Helena Landless, who comes to sell her hair. Accidently Mr Datchery discovers Edwin Drood’s missing coat in pawnshop. Datchery and Durdles then find the inspector who proceeds to interrogate the stonemason to find out more about the ‘Moonlight Expedition’ with Jasper. Once Durdle’s memory has been refreshed with the aid of alcohol he reveals some interesting facts. Inspector is convinced of Neville’s innocence.

Chapter XXXVI: ‘The Thorn of Anxiety’

Mrs Billickin and Ms Twinkleton are still at odds with each other. Clerk Bazzard comes to see his aunt. The housemaid tells Rosa that she is in love with Bazzard, as well as details of Mrs Billickin’s past, which the widowed lady has been trying to conceal, and most importantly Rosa learns about the manuscript of The Thorn of Anxiety, Mr Bazzard’s unpublished play. Reading the manuscript, Rosa finds a lot of similarities between the events of the play and the complicated events of her own life. The story gives her confidence and she decides to ask Tartar for protection for both herself and the Landless twins. Rosa secretly flees Mrs Billickin’s house to meet lieutenant at Staple Inn.

Chapter XXXVII: ‘Midnight Shadows’

Mr Porters questions the local jeweller of Cloisterham. Now, inspector is even more convinced of Neville’s innocence. Porters and Datchery then come up with a plan how to make Jasper lose his nerve and show his true face. To accomplish this, Datchery tells Mrs Tope about Neville’s release from prison. She immediately gives away the news to Jasper. The choirmaster secretly leaves his home that very night and goes to the monastery ruin to dig out a tomb key. Mr Datchery tries to chase him, but Jasper is vigilant enough to notice him and Datchery gets a stone to the head. Mr Datchery falls dead.

Chapter XXXVIII: ‘A Cab to London’

Neville Landless is released from prison the next morning and together with Canon Crisparkle they leave for London. Inspector Porters is intended to arrest Jasper, but the choirmaster has already left his house early this morning. Mr Datchery is not dead, he returns with his head bleeding. Datchery assures Porters that Jasper is intended to false the evidence: he wish to hide the tomb key in Neville’s apartment. Inspector pledges to prevent that from happening. Datchery and Porters persuade Joe the Driver to take them straight to London in his carriage. On their way to London, Datchery tells Porters how they met with Jasper as well as what happened at the Bud family mansion ten years ago.

Chapter XXXIX: ‘So The Stars Aligned’

Rosa Bud takes a cab to Staple Inn where she bumps into Jasper. He takes the girl into the doorkeeper’s room and ties her to a chair. Rosa is scared to death. Jasper needs to get rid of this unwanted eyewitness, so he takes her to the farthest hotel, gives her opium to drink and locks her down. He then heads towards Neville’s apartment to hide Sapsea’s Key in there. Unfortunately for Jasper, he is seen by Lieutenant Tartar while he is trying to bury the key in a flower pot. Frightened by Tartar’s scream, Jasper tries to escape, but Tartar goes after him. Jasper bumps into Neville as he runs down the stairs, which forces him to back off and climb out of the window and over the roof. Suddenly, Jasper stumbles and falls down, but he manages to grab at the edge of the roof. Neville tries to help the choirmaster risking his own life, despite all the sufferings Jasper has caused him. He doesn’t take any precautions and falls off the roof while Tartar is too far away to save him. Jasper tries to defame Neville in front of Crisparkle. Minor Canon quickly realises that Edwin’s murderer is none other than Jasper, he braces himself and knocks him down with a heavy punch to the chin.

Chapter XL: ‘Gains and Losses’

Inspector Porters takes Jasper into custody. However, he soon finds out that Rosa has been kidnapped by Jasper. Grewgious, Datchery and Porters try to convince Jasper to tell them where he took Rosa. Jasper refuses to cooperate. Inspector pledges to find the missing girl before the night falls. Mr Datchery is also determined to help so he sets off searching for the mistress of the opium den, who might be the witness they need. Datchery and Tartar study the map, meanwhile Inspector visits Mrs Billickin’s house, where a pleasant surprise awaits him—he encounters Ms Twinkleton, his first love. A sequence of mutual confessions result in their reconciliation. Inspector once again swears to do everything it takes to find Rosa.

Chapter XLI: ‘The Source of Vice’

Mr Datchery and Lieutenant Tartar visit the slums of East End searching for opium dens. They fall a victim of a group of drunk debauchees and get involved in a brawl. Thankfully, it is Lobley the Sailor who comes to their aid. He furthermore helps Datchery to find the den they are looking for. Datchery has a sincere talk with the mistress of the den, who volunteers to show him the hotel where Jasper presumably is keeping the kidnapped girl. They all head for the hotel, where they meet Inspector Porters—it seems that they both have successfully found the place they have been looking for, although each of them using their own method. They break in and find Rosa. Lieutenant Tartar takes her in his arms and carries her away.

Chapter XLII: ‘Under Lock and Key’

Rosa regains conciseness after a swoon that lasted a whole week. She learns about Jasper’s arrest and the upcoming trial from Mr Grewgious. This news has a better effect on Rosa than any medicine. Nevertheless, considering her recent escape, she is still being kept locked. John Jasper is also locked—in Clerkenwell prison. During a sleepless night, he is planning his line of defence. It’s a foggy morning and Jasper is taken to Old Bailey Court.

Chapter XLIII: ‘Accusatio’

The sitting of the court begins. The prosecutor makes an allegation against the choirmaster and questions inspector Porters, who has no doubts about Jasper’s guilt, nevertheless, Jasper’s attorney makes his testimony look questionable. Lieutenant Tartar’s testimony meets the same fate. Mr Grewgious is called to the stand. The old lawyer explains Jasper’s possible motive, which is to take hold of Droods’ inheritance by killing his nephew. The attorney once again interferes, he produces Drood Senior’s will and proves to the jury that his theory is invalid. Mr Grewgiuos gets irritated and leaves the court immediately.

Chapter XLIV: ‘The Key Witness’

The mistress of the opium den is called to the stand. She says that Jasper himself has told her about his plans to kill Edwin Drood, she also believes that Edwin is her long missing son Ned. The jury learns about her relationship with a particular gentleman by the name of Honeythunder, as a result of which baby Ned was born. The mistress had been blackmailing Mr Honeythunder for a some time until one day the child was gone and she couldn’t find him ever since. The crafty attorney easily renders all her testimony unreliable. Seemingly, Jasper is going to be proven innocent, thanks to the attorney’s valiant efforts—or at least that what Inspector Porters thinks, which he admits in a dialogue with Mr Datchery. Nevertheless, the retired government agent has another card up his sleeve.

Chapter XLV: ‘The Defence and The Failure’

Jasper’s attorney uses an nasty trick—he refuses to question the witnesses for the defence. Instead he wants to lull jury’s vigilance with his long, emotional and misleading speech. Unexpectedly, Mr Datchery sends a suspicious note to the Judge, which results in Rosa Bud being called out to the stand! The attorney is furious and Jasper is stunned. Rosa tells the jury about musical lessons with the defendant, about Jasper’s attempts on sexual harassment and his declarations of love. She strongly believes it was Jasper who murdered Edwin and he did it out of jealousy. According to her testimony, the choirmaster tried to defame Neville by hiding Mr Sapsea’s key in his apartment, and Rosa saw Jasper holding that key long before he entered Neville’s rooms. Knowing that he has been exposed, the choirmaster jumps out of his seat with a horrible shriek only to faint where he stands. Everybody is shocked. The jury think that the shriek could only be considered as Jasper’s confession of his own guilt and the Judge sentences him to death by hanging.

Chapter XLVI: ‘John Jasper’s Letter’

From a condemned cell Jasper writes a letter to Helena Landless, in which he tells her about his unfortunate childhood, about his love for his older sister and her child, little Edwin. He reminisces about the untimely death of Edwin’s mother and her funeral. In this time was a friendship resumed between gentlemen Drood and Bud. He praises lady Margaret Bud’s unrivalled beauty as well as her promiscuous sister Lillian’s shame, who gives birth to a child (Tony Winks, who is to become Deputy) as a result of her relationship with Stephen Durdles, who in turn promises to marry her, but then disappears. It is also revealed that the vainglorious gentleman Bud was extremely cruel towards Lillian and Margaret which drives both sisters to double suicide.

Chapter XLVII: ‘A Double Disaster’

John Jasper continues writing his letter to Helena. He tells her details of the early betrayal between Edwin and Rosa, also about the peculiar conditions added to Drood’s and Bud’s wills. He then tells her how horrified he was to find out that he wasn’t a trueborn son of his father. He was a foundling—this news nearly drives Jasper to suicide at that time. Despite all this, Jasper is determined to live for the sake of his brotherly love for Edwin Drood. However as soon as Jasper becomes Edwin’s guardian he learns that Edwin has also been adopted, and his true name was Ned.

Chapter XLIX ‘Delirium’

The news of Edwin being a bastard has almost driven Jasper mad. The truth is to be revealed inevitably, for sooner or later the will has to be announced and Jasper swears he would never let it happen. He is intended to do so even if the price he has to pay is Edwin’s and Rosa’s happiness. Jasper gets a job as a music teacher at The Nuns’ House, Rosa’s boarding school, hoping he could attract her and give up on their marriage with Edwin. Ironically, Jasper himself falls head over heels for Rosa Bud against his own will. He becomes sleep deprived due to the nightmares that haunt him every night—he envisions how he would kill Edwin to prevent the truth from being revealed, while now the second reason is his jealousy. In order to get rid of these destructive thoughts, Jasper takes to smoking opium, which turns into a bad addiction.

Chapter XLIX: ‘The Murder’

Jasper then describes the dark side of his opium addiction. Mood swings, unreasonable aggression as well as fits of fear have become his constant companions. He despises his nephew and feels no more regret at his criminal intentions. He starts preparations for the murder. He deliberately ignites a conflict between Edwin and Neville, he steals the crypt key from Durdles and purchases a long black scarf to serve as an instrument of crime. Jasper confesses how he lured Edwin into the graveyard on a windy night of Christmas Eve and how he murdered him and hid his dead body inside Mrs Sapsea’s monument. He then places Edwin’s coat at the river bank, so that everybody’s suspicion falls on Neville.

Chapter L: ‘Madness’

Jasper gives the alarm about Edwin’s disappearance the morning after the murder and initiates a search for his nephew. Alas, Edwin’s coat is missing and Jasper does not have any evidence to accuse Neville. The news that the betrothal between Rosa and Edwin has ended frustrates his plans, so he decides to wait while Rosa is mourning for her fiancé and propose to her later. Unfortunately, Rosa rejects him, which makes Jasper go totally insane. He decides to false an evidence and to hide the key at Neville’s empty apartment in London. It is at this moment that the prison superintendent brings Jasper a letter from Mr Sapsea. There is another letter attached to it—the letter was written by Drood Senior. Feeling sick with apprehension Jasper opens it...

Chapter LI: ‘When the Wicked Man—’

The last pages of Jasper’s letter are covered with blood—having read Mr Drood’s final words he attempts a suicide, but the gaolers save him. Jasper learns about his sister Hellen’s infertility, also that baby Ned indeed was found in a basket by Mr Drood Senior himself. Ned was secretly baptised and given a Christian name Edwin. Jasper also learns the mystery of his own origin—his sister Hellen was his real mother and Mr Sapsea was his real father. Hellen was rather young for motherhood, and it was Jasper’s birth which cause complications followed by Hellen’s infertility. This shocking news is powerful enough to resurrect John’s dead spirit and fill his heart with repentance. He finally realises his true motive for the murder—it was his love for lady Margaret, Rosa’s mother. Finally, he describes the magical vision of the future he had the night before the execution. This dream gives him hope for salvation. Jasper regains his faith in Jesus, and here he bids farewell to Helena Landless along with the reader.