Two Writers Turn Poe into a Literary Character

NPR | By Tom Vitale

Published July 9, 2006 at 12:28 PM EDT

Two new novels fold elements of literary history into the mystery thriller genre. Fittingly, both books feature the man who created tales of raciocination, the great Edgar Allan Poe.

The mystery surrounding Poe's death is the subject of The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl, while Louis Bayard's The Pale Blue Eye features Poe — long before anyone knew him as a writer — as a 20-year-old West Point cadet.

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