The Dead Alive (Full Version)

In The Dead Alive, Wilkie Collins sends an exhausted young English barrister, Philip Lefrank, across the Atlantic in search of rest—only to place him in a farm household where resentments simmer beneath respectable surfaces. At Morwick Farm, family loyalties are fractured, a trusted “overlooker” inspires fear and hatred in equal measure, and the newcomer quickly realizes that peace is the rarest commodity of all.

Collins blends domestic tension with psychological unease, building suspense through overheard conversations, guarded glances, and the ominous sense that violence has already crossed a line. The novel probes class and national prejudice, the volatility of jealousy, and the ways “propriety” can conceal cruelty. With his trademark narrative drive and moral complexity, Collins turns an apparently ordinary setting into a stage for secrets, accusation, and the unsettling question of who—socially, legally, or even spiritually—can be considered truly alive.

• Listeners who enjoy Victorian sensation fiction—slow-burn dread, domestic secrets, and sudden turns into danger.
• Fans of classic mysteries interested in legal and moral questions around guilt, testimony, and reputations.
• Readers of Dickens and Collins looking for a tightly wound tale where family conflict becomes a catalyst for suspense.

Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was an English novelist and playwright, celebrated as a pioneer of sensation fiction and an architect of the modern mystery. A close friend of Charles Dickens, he combined theatrical plotting with sharp observation of law, class, and social hypocrisy. Collins is best known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868), works that helped shape detective and suspense literature. His novels often experiment with multiple viewpoints and documentary realism, using letters, testimony, and legal detail to create suspense while probing the moral pressures that drive ordinary people toward extraordinary acts.