Review - The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl Reviewed by Ken Reiss  7/5/06

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The Poe Shadow follows the adventures of one Quentin Clark, and attorney in 1849 Baltimore. Just by accident Mr. Clark witnesses the funeral of Edgar Allen Poe, the poet. The story is told mostly in the first person of Mr. Clark, and we get to hear all of his thoughts and actions- every one of them. The first two parts of the book (through the 4^th disk) are the rationalization of Clark’s actions and other things that are set in motion as a result of his focus on the Poe problem.

Mr. Clark feels an obligation to Poe as both a fan of the literature and, having communicated with Poe about business affairs, as a potential client. Mr. Clark decides to find the real detective that C. Auguste Dupin, the detective hero in Poe’s trilogy of mystery tales, is modeled after. After some research, he sets off to Paris in search of the likely candidate who he eventually convinces to accompany him back to Baltimore to research the problem.

The book does put forth a version of what happened to Poe in his last few days, a mystery which plagues scholars to this day. Eventually, as the story unravels, it becomes less about Clark and his reasoning and more about events and interaction with others in the story, and by the end I was quite interested to find out what happens.

Erik Singer narrates and does a good job. It gets somewhat tedious at times, but it seems that’s more the nature of the story and the long ramblings of Clark than the fault of the narrator. Towards the end, Singer does an excellent job of voices and dialects keeping the characters easy to tell apart.

If you choose to listen to this one, don’t miss the MP3 file located on the last disk. It’s a ten minute or so discussion by Matthew Pearl himself on the mystery surrounding the events leading up to Poe’s death and some of the research and efforts that were put into the book. I’d advise you to listen to that first as it explains a few things you may not know, but it also would spoil some of the plot, so at the end is probably better.

Poe is widely recognized as the father of the detective “whodunit” mystery. His trilogy of Dupin stories is said to have greatly inspired Sherlock Holmes some four decades later. If you’re a fan of Poe or the mystery surrounding his death you’ll probably find this an interesting read. Those with an interest in the historical period may not be quite so happy as there’s little of the feel of the period that’s relevant to the story, but it may hold some interest. The Washington Monument, which is featured in the story didn’t open to the public until the 1880’s, which makes me wonder about other history and events in the story. This won’t stop you from enjoying the story, but it’s not historically correct either. If you don’t fall into either of those categories, you may wish to find another title. The Poe stories themselves might be an alternative if you’re interested in the birth of the genre that we all love so much.

About Ken Reiss - Ken is a long time audiobook listener having little time to read but spending a lot of time in the car. Mysteries, Old Time Radio and non fiction all occupy his time, but a good detective story is by far the favorite. In addition to audiobook reviews, he writes a monthly column for a popular electronics magazine and reviews of communications equipment.

He has an MBA from Webster University in St. Louis where he teaches evening classes. He lives in the St. Louis area with his wife and three dogs.

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