"Terror to the End "is an imaginative re-creation of the last day in Charles Dickens' astonishing life. For the most part, it employs the great writer's own words, taken from his letters and readings. We meet him as he takes a break from his work on "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," which would remain only half-finished. Dickens was writing one of its most beautiful sections on this, his last working day.

"Terror to the End" is dramatically punctuated by spine-tingling sections of "Sikes and Nancy" (sometimes called "The Murder of Nancy"), from Oliver Twist. The celebrated writer would...