Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, even Poe's family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who died a drunkard. But none of this deters a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who risks his own career and reputation in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe's.
Clark discovers that Poe's last days are riddled with vital unanswered questions. The police, it seems, may be concealing things. But just when Poe's death seems destined to remain a mystery Quentin realises he must find the one person who can solve this strange case: the real-life model for Poe's brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection.
Clark successfully recruits the man he believes to have inspired Poe's Dupin only to be confronted by another claiming to be the true model and a dangerous race between the two master detectives begins, each seeking to prove he is the real 'Dupin' by solving the mystery of Poe's death. In short order, Clark finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade and the lost secrets of Poe's final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, he must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe.
The Poe Shadow is a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense which opens a thrilling new window on the truth behind Poe's demise, literary history's most persistent enigma.
Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow is the first book I've read in a while that I did not like at all. The premise is interesting; a contemporary of Edgar Allen Poe attempts to discover what happened in the final days before the poet's death. Pearl had written the moderately entertaining The Dante Club prior to this, and I had expected to see the improvement that often comes with an author's sophomore effort. Instead, Pearl only manages to serve up a snooze-fest.
To begin with, Quentin Clark is the most unsympathetic and annoying protagonist I have ever encountered. He throws away his job and his fiance at the merest whisper of a conspiracy. He's obsessed with Poe beyond all rational thought. After abandoning his fiance for over a year and a half, he's stunned to discover she's been betrothed to someone else. He creates adversaries where there are none. By the time the book ended, I was more than ready to be done with him and never hear from him again.
The other characters do not fare much better. Their motives are cloudy, at best. I could never quite understand why people were behaving as they were. Everyone was dramatic and over-the-top, and I couldn't identify anyone that I even liked.
The mystery itself doesn't propel itself forward very well, and there's simply too much muddled stuff in between Poe's death and the final resolution of what happened to him. Although I appreciate the historical analysis, of which the author did much, it's not presented in an interesting way.
If you're a diehard Poe fan, you might enjoy this take on the poet's life and death. Otherwise, I can't think of a reason I'd recommend this book to anyone.
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