Aside from "God bless us, every one," Tiny Tim's most widely remembered remark from A Christmas Carol comes secondhand: His father recounts Tim's Christmas wish that churchgoers might see his lame leg and be reminded of Christ, healer of cripples. In Louis Bayard's mystery novel Mr. Timothy, a grown-up Timothy Cratchit claims he never said, or even thought, those words; instead, they're what his father wished he'd said. Mr. Timothy is primarily an atmospheric, gripping Victorian adventure story, following the title character as he investigates the murder of two preteen girls and attempts to prevent the murder of a third. But the novel's postmodern streak extends beyond the reinvention of a famous minor Charles Dickens character. Bayard uses Tim Cratchit's voice to talk about what it feels like to be written into someone else's narrative: his father's, in Cratchit's case, and Dickens', in Bayard's. Bayard reacts by sullying the character's character, making Cratchit a brothel bookkeeper and part-time graverobber. Other changes are subtler: Ebenezer Scrooge is still around and still a born-again philanthropist, but he's not as rich as he once was, and Cratchit admits to being embarrassed at taking his benefactor's money. The ghosts of Christmas are still around, too, in the form of faces from Cratchit's past that pop up momentarily on passing street vendors, and visions of what he imagines will happen to himself and everyone he knows. Even as Bayard is muddying up Dickens a little–with foul-mouthed urchins joining the protagonist in uncovering a child-slavery/rape ring instigated by members of London's ruling class–Tim's heart remains stubbornly pure. He's preoccupied with the awkward ties of family obligations at the holiday season, but he still tries to do right, following his amateur investigation as it necessitates a string of white-knuckle rescue attempts. Cratchit even ends up fulfilling his father's wish in reminding the people he encounters of Jesus Christ, though Bayard strives to make this particular savior more son of man than Son of God.