Matthew Pearl will be following up his popular thriller THE DANTE CLUB with another venture into the literary historical world: THE POE SHADOW.
In the novel, Edgar Allan Poe fanatic Quentin Clark seeks the help of the real-life model for C. Auguste Dupin, Poe’s fictional detective, to inquire into the author’s suspicious death. Another person claiming to be the actual Dupin shows up as well.
Though you can pre-order now, THE POE SHADOW is due May 23. On the same day, The Modern Library will release a Poe compilation, THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE: THE DUPIN TALES, for which Pearl has edited and supplied the introduction.
Related posts:
- Cover for THRILLER anthology revealed
- Cover unearthed for Preston/Child’s BOOK OF THE DEAD
- Mystery Guild releases second Christie omnibus
- Suspense greats line up for THRILLER anthology
- Posthumous McBain collection coming
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This is great. Loved THE DANTE CLUB and have wondered what Pearl was up to.
I read Harold Schechter’s NEVERMORE (in which Poe himself is the narrator) a few years ago and enjoyed it, but the prose was so authentic it just wore me out by the end.
I need to finally take that DANTE CLUB off my shelf and read it. At least before POE SHADOW comes out.
Isn’t Schechter the guy who’s done a whole series of Poe-related mysteries? There’s another recent one out called FOR EDGAR by Sheldon Rusch that sounds intriguing.
Well, I know of one other Poe book by Schechter, called THE HUM BUG. Like NEVERMORE it’s well done but gets to be a chore to read. Like one reviewer said, Poe’s language lends itself to short stories, not book-length work. I haven’t looked Schechter up in some time so there might be others now.
Personally my favorite Poe as detective book is POE MUST DIE by Marc Olden (it even has cameo in the prologue by Charles Dickens). I believe it was a Charter paperback original and it paired Poe with an Irish prizefighter named P.Figg against an evil necromancer prowling New York. Olden went on to do several contemporary pseudo-Ninja and cop thrillers but this has always been my favorite of his work.
Thanks for the recommendation, Brian. I’m sorry to see that POE MUST DIE is out of print, though, because it sounds really cool.