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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Booklists
Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.
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Booklists and Suggested Reading
Edgar Allan Poe Stars
Page Modified: August 19, 2008
Books about Poe or inspired by his work.
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
Fiction
- The Pale Blue Eye
Author: Bayard, Louis
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060733977 Date: 2006
PW Kirkus
In this ingenious tale of murder and revenge at West Point, a retired New York City detective recruits a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe to help him narrow down the suspects, even as they deal with their own personal demons.
Updated 4.24.06 - The Raven and the Nightingale: A Modern Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe
Author: Dobson, Joanne
Publisher: Doubleday $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385493398 Date: 1999
An unexpected bequest sends waves of violence through placid groves of academe in Dobson's third mystery to feature professor Karen Pelletier.
Updated 7.25.05 - Entombed
Author: Fairstein, Linda
Publisher: Scribner $ 26 ISBN: 0743254880 Date: 2005
In the latest electrifying thriller from "New York Times" bestselling and Nero Wolf Award-winning author Fairstein, Alexandra Cooper matches wits with Edgar Allan Poe as she probes the haunting shadows of New York's literary history.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe
Author: Hatvary, George Egon
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 22 ISBN: 078670358x Date: 1997
When Auguste Dupin, on an overcast day in October 1849, receives a letter informing him of Poe's death, he leaves Paris and journeys to America to pay his respects to Poe's family. But he also wants to put to rest his fear that his friend was murdered; unfortunately, it seems as though Poe had his enemies as well as his admirers. Dupin's voyage takes him from the genteel salons of Richmond, Virginia to the home of the woman who stole Poe's heart, to the back alleys of Baltimore, where the poet lost himself in drink and self-pity, to the throngs of New York City, hub of the elite literary society which Poe ultimately failed to enter. Rich in its depictions of nineteenth-century America, The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe quickly draws the reader into a mystery as macabre and frightening as Poe's own work. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 7.25.05 - Nevermore
Author: Hjortsberg, William
Publisher: Atlantic $ 21 ISBN: 0871135795 Date: 1994
Set in 1920's New York City, this dazzling literary thriller by the bestselling author of Falling Angel combines pulse-racing action, a cast of famous historical characters, a brilliantly deranged serial killer, and visits from beyond the grave.
Updated 7.25.05 - In a Strange City
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 24 ISBN: 0380978180 Date: 2001
PW
Lippman's Tess Monaghan novel is an homage to the city of Baltimore. The plot hinges on literary history involving an anonymous figure who places brandy and a rose on Edgar Allan Poe's grave every January on the writer's birthday--until one year the mystery man is murdered.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Lighthouse at the End of the World: A Tale of Edgar Allan Poe
Author: Marlowe, Stephen
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525940499 Date: 1995
PW
Marlowe, author of The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus, recreates the world of Edgar Allan Poe--his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin and his ostracism by the literary establishment of the day. But what seems at first a fictional biography soon expands into a tale of mystery featuring Poe's legendary detective, August Dupin, and a journey to a universe not quite our own.
Updated 7.25.05 - Poe & Fanny
Author: May, John
Publisher: Algonquin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1565124278 Date: 2004
Booklist
This first-rate historical fiction revolves around one of the most famous andtragic figures in American literature--Edgar Allan Poe.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Authors | Biographical Fiction
Updated 4.27.04 - For Edgar
Author: Rusch, Sheldon
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 23.95 ISBN: 042520409x Date: 2005
Kirkus
A killer who calls himself The Raven honors the macabre tales of Edgar Allan Poe through a series of slayings. Special Agent Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt tracks The Raven's tell-tale signs, leading her into a mystery that binds them both in an ingenious nightmare.
Updated 6.9.05 - The Hollow Earth: The Narrative of Mason Algiers Reynolds of Virginia
Author: Rucker, Rudy
Publisher: Morrow $ 18.95 ISBN: 0688094139 Date: 1990
PW
Updated 7.25.05 - Nevermore
Author: Schechter, Harold
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23 ISBN: 0671798553 Date: 1999
A chilling piece of historical fiction, starring author Edgar Allan Poe. After Poe skewers the autobiography of Colonel David Crockett--and is unexpectedly confronted by the indignant congressman--the two men are led on a quest for a killer that will bring them face to face with the darkest impulses of the human heart.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Hum Bug
Author: Schechter, Harold
Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0671041150 Date: 2001
Premier mystery author Schechter revisits the chilling world of Nevermore in this novel of historical suspense, the second in his critically acclaimed series starring Edgar Allan Poe.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Mask of Red Death
Author: Schechter, Harold
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345448413 Date: 2004
Suspense, intrigue, atmosphere, and vivid historical detail combine into a thrilling ride through nineteenth-century New York City in The Mask of Red Death. Harold Schechter delivers both a wonderfully accurate portrait of a city in turmoil and an irresistibly appealing depiction of his amateur sleuth Edgar Allan Poe, mirroring the master's writing style with wit and acumen.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Tell-Tale Corpse
Author: Schechter, Harold
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345448421 Date: 2006
Updated 7.25.05 - On Night's Shore
Author: Silvis, Randall
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312262019 Date: 2001
Booklist
In 1840 New York City, a beautiful shopgirl is murdered. The discovery of her body in the Hudson River prompts young journalist Edgar Allan Poe to search for the truth behind an apparently motiveless crime. Joining Poe is Augie Dubbins, an orphaned street urchin who becomes Poe's most trusted ally and narrates the story as it swings wildly from the Five Points slums to the mansions of Fifth Avenue.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Updated 12/7/00 - Disquiet Heart
Author: Silvis, Randall
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312262485 Date: 2002
Edgar Allan Poe--author, poet, and occasional sleuth--returns in this atmospheric literary thriller where five young girls go missing in Pittsburgh.
Updated 7.25.05 - An Unpardonable Crime
Author: Taylor, Andrew
Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 1401301029 Date: 2004
This irresistible literary thriller in the tradition of The Alienist and An Instance of the Fingerpost is set in early 1800s England and involves young Edgar Allan Poe.
Updated 7.25.05 - Poe
Author: Hutchinsson, James M.
Publisher: Univ PR of Miss $ 30 ISBN: 1578067219 Date: 2005
LJ
Updated 7.12.05 - Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe
Author: Walsh, John Evangelist
Publisher: Rutgers $ 25 ISBN: 0813526051 Date: 1998
LJ
With the publication of three short tales in the 1840s, Poe invented the detective story. Then his own sudden and bizarre death created a real-life mystery, still unsolved after 150 years, as tantalizing as any of his stories. While travelling alone from Richmond, Virginia, to New York City, Poe disappeared for nearly a week. When seen again he was terribly drunk and near death in Baltimore. In the hospital, he couldn't tell where he'd been all that time or who he'd been with. Four days later, after periods of raving delirium, he died. Until now, no one has seriously probed the mystery of the missing week. In Midnight Dreary, John Evangelist Walsh examines the last days of one of America's most admired authors, definitively untangling more than a century of speculation. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 7.12.05
Nonfiction
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
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