On his current book tour in promotion of his historical novel "The Last Dickens," author Matthew Pearl brings with him an unusual prop: a Charles Dickens action figure. Pearl, who spoke at the University Book Store last week, brought along the Dickens toy for reasons beyond pure kitschiness, as he explained to the U-District audience: “Commercializing or selling Dickens is nothing new, as you’ll discover if you read my book.”

"The Last Dickens," released last month by Random House ($25), is set at the time of Dickens’ death in 1870 and traces Boston publisher James Osgood’s search for the rumored missing half of the great author’s unfinished last work, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Pearl’s novel is very much a mystery itself, including numerous shadowy figures, disguises and plot twists that keep the ending as unpredictable as that of Drood.

Although largely fictional, "The Last Dickens" does include a wealth of factual information about Dickens, Osgood and the American publishing industry at the time. Pearl seems a credible source as a former Harvard literature student who has taught at both his alma mater as well as Emerson College.

The novel follows three distinct narrative threads: Osgood pursuing the conclusion to "Drood," British officer Frank Dickens (Charles’ son) combating opium smugglers in India, and Charles Dickens’ American book tour two years earlier. As "The Last Dickens" progresses, Pearl cleverly weaves each of these elements together into a single, well-imagined historical mystery.

Though split between different times and places, Pearl’s novel focuses primarily on Osgood and his publishing war with Harper & Brothers — today, HarperCollins — a focus that Pearl said helped get the project funded.

“When I pitched the book to Random House, I told them I thought they’d like it because a publisher is the hero,” Pearl said at the University Book Store reading.

Though "The Last Dickens" is his first book to feature a publisher as its protagonist, it is certainly not the author’s first historical novel about a 19th-century writer. Pearl’s two previous best-selling works, "The Poe Shadow," set at the time of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, and "The Dante Club," about the group of poets who translated Dante Alighieri’s "Divine Comedy," present similar historical elements and fictional themes.

Dickens serialized many of his novels, including "Drood," which meant many of his fans had already read the first installments of his last, unfinished work at the time of the author’s death. This produced much debate over how Dickens intended to end the mystery, which Pearl said greatly motivated his latest novel.

“I think there’s something particularly distressing about an unfinished book,” he said. “And, naturally, we, the readers, try to finish it, which becomes fun in a way.”

Reach reporter Joe Darda at arts@dailyuw.com.