The Pale Blue Eye : A Novel
Author(s): Louis Bayard
“Shockingly clever and devoutly unsentimental...reads like a lost classic. Bayard reinvigorates historical fiction.”- New York Times Book Review
An ingenious tale of murder and revenge at West Point, featuring a retired detective and a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe--from the author of Courting Mr. Lincoln.
At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man's heart. Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It's a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. The strange and haunted Southern poet for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe.
Review(s):
“Shockingly clever and devoutly unsentimental...reads like a lost classic. Bayard reinvigorates historical fiction.”
“Another literary tour de force.…At novel’s end, the reader may want to start again from the beginning.”
“(A) tour-de-force…intense and gripping …(a) beautifully crafted thriller ”
“Ingenious...with a rich knowledge of Poe’s life and work.”
“Seemlessly blends Poe into an engrossing whodunit worthy of its inspiration. ”
“Exquisitely rendered character study, imaginatively Gothic, compelling.”
“Gracefully written...Bayard’s prose flows like silk, weightless but enveloping, and never shows its seams.
“Bayard has produced a nuanced, wonderfully written tale, one worthy of the old master himself.”
“An uncanny and original portrait. Captures the imagination with exquisite details and a compelling, disquieting story.”
“Gruesomely entertaining.”
ISBN: 9780060733988