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Title: The Poe Shadow

Author: Matthew Pearl

Narrator: Erik Singer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-15-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 107 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances and unanswered questions of Poe's demise, he realizes that he must find the one person who can help: the real-life model for Poe's brilliant fictional detective character, C. Augustine Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection. Soon Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents and the lost secrets of Poe's final hours, and must himself turn master investigator to escape Poe's grisly fate.

Drawing on original, groundbreaking research, the best-selling author of The Dante Club has once again crossed literary history with sublime craftsmanship and devious twists to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense.

Includes Matthew Pearl's exclusive audio afterword on the truth behind Poe's death!

Critic Reviews:

"Exciting plot, numerous twists, and convincing period detail." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Two hours too long

I enjoyed The Dante Club. This book has a bit of the same intrigue, but the plot goes off on tangents that leave you not caring at all what happens. The narrator (in the book) of the story is stilted and overly-analytical. The reader is fine. The ending is interesting, and the interview with the author is worth the listen.

I wanted to like it...

I was first introduced to Mathew Pearl through The Dante Club, and absolutely loved it. I've listened to two more of his books since then, The Poe Shadow included, and while I felt the concept had merit, as other reviewers have indicated, the story was way too long. So many of the details could have been omitted without any harm coming to the story, and ultimately, I had a hard time caring about what was taking place. I kept waiting for a wow moment that would pull it all together and make it worth the length, but it never happened. The protagonist spent the entire length of the book fighting to uncover the mystery behind Poe's death, but the reason behind his obsession was never fully validated, in my mind. I won't give up on Pearl, but I won't blindly follow, either.

Pointless, I'm afraid

I enjoyed the Dante Club and hoped this book would be similarly appealing. To a certain extent, the historical aspects of this book are interesting. Pearl has done a good job of imagining a historical period and populates the book with colorful characters. The narrator, as another review pointed out, does a good job of voicing the various accents. But unfortunately, some good parts do not make up a worthwhile whole. As Pearl himself practically concedes in his remarks at the end of this audiobook, there's no real point to the characters' actions or efforts and there is little recognizable narrative cohesion or direction. All the more infuriating, this very pointlessness and lack of cohesion appears to have some lit-crit significance to the author. My suggestion to authors who want to convey similar messages: do it in a journal, not a 13 hour audiobook novel.

Tedious

I shold've known, in comparing the reviews of the unabridged vs. abridged versions of this audio book. I plowed through this, it was tedious. The author clearly has put in a great deal of research and thought into this book. It needed a good edit for length.

Erik Singer's reading of the novel was outstanding, his grasp of accents very good.