EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD

An urgent request from his friend C. Auguste Dupin brings Edgar Allan Poe to Paris in June 1849 to help him unravel another mystery, this one very personal. Dupin, the Parisian detective in the real-life Poe's “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” dreads the reemergence of his nemesis, Ernest Valdemar, the man who destroyed his family decades ago. Poe, who narrates in typically florid style, is mourning the death of his beloved wife, Sissy, and his two-week crossing from Philadelphia to Le Havre is bathed in melancholy. When he arrives, there’s another surprise. Dupin didn’t write the letter that brought him; who did? And why did they want Poe in Paris? The plot unfolds in a series of juicy set pieces. Touching a carved owl reveals a dark passage behind a bookcase. Dupin believes, against any scientific proof and the opinion of his physician, Dr. Froissart, that an elixir he takes in small doses may be slowly killing him. Froissart is consumed with another crime as dastardly as it is convoluted. Years ago, a boy was kidnapped and has now grown into manhood. The Grand Duke of Gerolstein is investigating this matter; coincidentally (or perhaps not), Poe interacted with the grand duke and his friend Herr Durand on his trans-Atlantic crossing. Dupin fears that both the grand duke and the young man are in danger. But from whom? The duo’s search takes them to the catacombs, the Grand Guignol, and a bizarre puppet theater.

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