When you think of Charles Dickens’ ghost stories, you may first think of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the ghosts that visit Scrooge. However, ‘The Trail for Murder’ is perhaps Dickens’ second best-known ghost tale. Written in 1865, ‘The Trial for Murder’ is a short story in which the ghost of a murder victim materialises to the foreman of the jury at his own murder trial. In this supernatural horror story, the ghost harasses the jurors and witnesses to ensure that his murderer is found guilty. While ‘The Trial for Murder' might not be considered scary by our modern-day standards it was one of the first ghost stories widely published and is a great read for fans of films like ‘The Sixth Sense’.
Regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens is best known for creating some of the world’s best known fictional characters who feature in his most popular novels, including The Artful Dodger in 'Oliver Twist’, Ebenezer Scrooge in ‘A Christmas Carol’, and Miss Havisham in ‘Great Expectations’. Dickens’ timeless novels and short stories are still widely read today and many have been adapted into countless TV programmes and films including the Academy Award-winning musical ‘Oliver’, and 'A Christmas Carol' which well known worldwide and is a huge favourite movie for families to watch together at Christmas time.