The Poe Shadow

I was intrigued by the use of Edgar A Poe's death as a plot for a fictional story and found it to be quite fascinating! There is a lot of detail and plot twists, and a plethora of characters to this novel that sometimes can become tedious and confusing in some parts. The entire story is told through the eyes of Quentin Clark, a lawyer and to be honest a somewhat lackluster character, but none the less the book held my interest and kept me interested enough to want to finish and find out how the mystery ended! I look forward to reading more from this author. :)

This book had a good attention to detail as I learned a lot about Baltimore and Paris in the late 1840s-1850s. I did find that the plot sometimes dragged a bit as Quentin's personal fate overshadowed the mystery of Poe's death, but it was nicely wrapped up at the end. I also liked Pearl's notes at the end as he explains how he used actual newspaper quotes and letters throughout the narrative.