In the sweltering New York City summer of 1841, Mary Rogers, a popular counter girl at a tobacco shop in Manhattan, is found brutally ravaged in the shallows of the Hudson River. John Colt, scion of the firearm fortune, beats his publisher to death with a hatchet. And young Irish gang leader Tommy Coleman is accused of killing his daughter, his wife, and his wife's former lover. Charged with solving it all is High Constable Jacob Hays, the city's first detective. At the end of a long and distinguished career, Hays's investigation will ultimately span a decade, involving gang wars, grave robbers, and clues hidden in poems by the hopeless romantic and minstrel of the night: Edgar Allan Poe.
- ISBN10 0393062317
- ISBN13 9780393062311
- Publish Date 9 February 2007
- Publish Status Inactive
- Out of Print 23 August 2012
- Publish Country US
- Imprint WW Norton & Co
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 480
- Language English