- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Pearl published his debut novel in 2003. The Dante Club is a small group of Harvard professors and poets (including Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes) who must track down a killer before he derails their efforts to complete the first American translation of The Divine Comedy. The novel became an international sensation. Pearl's attention to historical facts, his imagination, his vivid descriptions and fine characterizations awed critics and delighted readers. Esquire magazine chose The Dante Club as its "Big Important Book of the Month." Since its 2003 publication, it has become an international bestseller, translated into 30 languages.
Pearl followed The Dante Club with another cagey combination of historical fact and mysterious fiction. The Poe Shadow takes place during the aftermath of the death of Edgar Alan Poe. In a labyrinthine plot that would surely have made the master of the macabre proud, an attorney named Quentin Hobson Clark seeks to uncover the exact details that lead up to the peculiar death of his favorite writer. The Poe Shadow was another major feat from Matthew Pearl. If anything, it is even richer and more intriguing than its predecessor. Poe's status as a great purveyor of mystery and the mystery which Pearl conjures within his plot makes for a most provocative mixture. Critics from all corners of the globe agreed. From Entertainment Weekly to The Spectator to The Independent, The Globe and Mail, Booklist, Bookpage, and countless others, The Poe Shadow was hailed as another major achievement for Matthew Pearl. The novel has also become yet another international bestseller.
So, is Matthew Pearl heading for the kind of literary celebrity that so fascinates him? Well, Details magazine named the writer as one of its "Next Big Things," and Dan "The Da Vinci Code" Brown called him "the new shining star of literary fiction." Who knows? Maybe one day an aspiring young writer may see fit to place Matthew Pearl in the center of some fictional puzzler.
His fascination with Edgar Alan Poe does not end with Poe's presence in The Poe Shadow. Pearl also edited a 2006 collection of Poe's C. Auguste Dupin mysteries titled Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales.
davidputty
Posted January 6, 2012
This is another good read from the master storyteller and historian, Matthew Pearl. Once again (as he did in The Dante Club, The Last Dickens, and The Poe Shadow) Pearl weaves a good mystery into the historical facts of the time period. My only regret with the Professor's Assassin is that it is too short--but, hey, it's a short story. You will never go wrong with a book by Matthew Pearl. I am eagerly awaiting his next novel.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 9, 2012
This was an interesting story to me, especially since I live in Virginia. The historical background was intriguing. My appetite was whetted for Mr. Pearl's new book, The Technologists.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.LPullin
Posted March 29, 2012
This story gives you a feeling for the time right before the civil war. Heroes, fools and one thoroughly nasty privileged person. Only fault was kind of short but sets up next novel. Based on a true incident. I would read other books by this author as I like history based mysteries. you do see the same personality types today so more things change the more they are the same.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.jumperjudy
Posted March 29, 2012
This is the first I've read from this author - I tried The Dante Club but couldn't get into it. This story caught my attention from the start and was hard to put down. I enjoyed it so much I purchased The Technologists by Matthew Pearl and was not disappointed!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.stephNR
Posted March 20, 2012
This short story gripped me from the first line. I truly enjoyed it. A fascinating and wonderful read!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 15, 2012
The sleuth seemed very rigid and staid for a man of his age. I didn't enjoy this very much but someone who likes a historical mystery may enjoy this more.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.NUmom
Posted March 30, 2012
I love historically based novels and am always looking forward to the next Matthew Pearl book. I read this in a day while waiting for The Technologists to be released. This was a short tie in to that book which came out about a week later.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 30, 2012
What a great re-introduction to Matthew Pearl's writing! It's long enough to occupy a couple of before-bed reading sessions and detailed enough to transport the reader to the UVa of the mid-nineteenth century. While the crime to be solved does involve a gun and a murder, the clues are largely literary or artistic, and that makes the story both less gorey and more challenging. And the additional treat of the opening chapter of Pearls' soon-to-be released novel makes this purchase all the more worthwhile.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Mike40
Posted March 29, 2012
A modern tale set in an earlier time.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 29, 2012
It was a fast read, with some an historic situation of which I had no idea. I thouroughly enjoyed it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.VictorianaJD
Posted March 29, 2012
Starts with a bang and really keeps you interested throughout. The main character was not what I thought he'd be from the introduction and I liked the complexity.
I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the ending and I really mean I'm not sure. Maybe it was OK.
I'll read more of Matthew Pearl's work. I think it's worthwhile and he's set up some interesting characters.
Far from sterile academics, early university life was loaded with intrigue, violence and even death. A fast moving and surprisingly unbiased look at the problems and solutions in crime solving in one of our oldest, finest academic institutions. A must read for those who want an understanding of our educational history and murder.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 20, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 6, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 19, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 1, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 29, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 29, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Matthew Pearl’s upcoming novel, The Technologists, is a stunning historical thriller based on the early days of America’s great institution of learning, MIT—and a depraved killer teaching Boston to fear its own shadow. In this original eBook short story, Pearl delves further into the turbulent world of nineteenth-century academia to re-create a shocking, real-life, and all-but-forgotten crime.William Barton Rogers will one day become MIT’s founder and president. But in 1840 he is still a science professor at the University of Virginia. A tall and commanding intellectual, he epitomizes the strong and liberal ways of “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” a...