A Poe and Dupin Mystery
by Karen Lee Street
Edgar Allan Poe and C. Auguste Dupin strive to unravel a mystery involving old enemies, lost soul-mates, ornithomancy, and the legendary jewel of Peru.
Philadelphia, 1844.
As violent tensions escalate between nativists and recent Irish immigrants, Edgar Allan Poe's fears for the safety of his wife, Virginia, and mother-in-law, Muddy, are compounded when he receives a parcel of mummified bird parts. Has his nemesis returned to settle an old score? Just as odd is the arrival of Helena Loddiges, a young heiress who demands Poe's help to discover why her lover died at the city's docks on his return from an expedition to Peru.
Poe is skeptical of her claims of having received messages from birds - and visitations from her lover's ghost - but when Miss Loddiges is kidnapped, he and his friend C. Auguste Dupin must unravel a mystery involving old enemies, lost soulmates, ornithomancy, and the legendary jewel of Peru.
"Starred Review. Excellent... Street enhances the Grand Guignol plot with a plausible and empathetic portrayal of her lead." - Publishers Weekly
"Street successfully combines historical fact with fiction. A particular treat for fans of the master of the macabre." - Booklist
"Street excels at seamlessly joining history and fiction, displaying a literary style not unlike Poe's, complete with touches of the macabre and melodramatic...Fans of Poe and Dupin will look forward to more adventures of the detecting duo." - Library Journal
"A bit like the newly imagined Sherlock Holmes movies: a dose of drama, a dash of darkness, and a little bit of humor ultimately liven up the journey." - Kirkus
This information about Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Karen Lee Street spent her earliest years in an 18th century Pennsylvanian farmhouse with far too many things that went bump in the night. Consequently, she became a voracious reader of fairytales, mysteries, historical yarns (both true and untrue), and stories with a tinge of the Gothic.
Her debut mystery trilogy combines these elements and has been described as both literary historical crime and Gothic mystery. The protagonists are famed writer Edgar Allan Poe and his fictional creation, the ur-detective C. Auguste Dupin whose investigations take them to London in 1840; Philadelphia, 1844; and Paris, 1849.
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