The Poe Shadow

I enjoy historical fiction so I probably liked this more than most. However, there just isn't enough mystery surrounding Poe's death to warrant an entire novel. The ending was quite anti-climatic. Pearl tried to generate more mystery and thrills than actually exist, but it never really went anywhere. I also never really cared that much about the narrator. Though I admire Pearl's attempt at creating a riveting historical mystery, he never really succeeded.

I just couldn't figure out what was going on: not the main character's motivation, the point of his obsession, who was who and what was what. It was just a garbled mess.

This book is a talking head book, meaning that characters talk to each other and little else goes on. It was flat and boring. I could barely make it through the 6th disk when I finally admitted that I couldn't stand one more second of the slow plot or the pedantic writing style.

Wordy, obviously intended to evoke style of mid 1800 American writing. Not certain if the story failed to really draw me in due to the archaic style or the narrator's pleasant but somewhat flat delivery. Found myself irritated with the protagonist rather than sympathetic. Wound up not really understanding the author's choice of subject. Poe's fate just not that engrossing after this read.