Dickens had completed nearly half of this story when he died. Speculation about how it would have ended has since tended to attract greater interest than any assessment of the work as it stands. The central mystery of the story arises from the disappearance of Edwin Drood. It seems likely that he has been murdered. There is evidence to suppose that this is what Dickens had had in mind, but the identity of the murderer, if there was such, has been a cause of much dispute. The episodes published were very popular and some passages are considered to be among the most sublime that Dickens wrote.