Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead (Poe and Dupin Mystery #3)

by Karen Lee Street

Overview

A thrilling historical mystery about mesmerism and magic, the shadows of the past, and the endurance of love—the third novel in the author’s acclaimed Poe and Dupin series.

“And I prayed that I would find a way to tell my most honorable friend, the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, the truth about how I had finally been murdered and by whom.”—EAP Summer, 1849.

When Edgar Allan Poe travels to Paris to help his dear friend hunt down the elusive criminal who bought the Dupin family to ruin during the French Revolution, the sleuthing duo are engaged by the prefect of police to recover the stolen letter of an infamous Parisian salonnière. Is the thief one of the French literary greats who attend her salons, or might it be Dupin’s own enemy who is scheming to become the Emperor of France?

Poe and Dupin are quickly embroiled in a deadly cat and mouse game that takes them to the treacherous tunnels of the city’s necropolis, where few who venture into the notorious Empire of the Dead manage to return from the darkness…

The third in the author’s critically acclaimed Edgar Allan Poe series, Empire of the Dead is a thrilling historical mystery about alchemy, mesmerism and magic, the shadows of the past, and the endurance of love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643134239
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Series:	Poe and Dupin Series , #3
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Karen Lee Street was born in America but has lived in London for most of her adult life. She recently moved to Australia. Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/30/2020

The ominous prologue of the terrific concluding volume of Street’s Poe trilogy (after 2018’s Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru) takes place in Baltimore in October 1849, just days before the real Poe died. Poe has a vision of his dead wife and an apothecary dispensing poison, which reveals the truth about how he “had finally been murdered and by whom.” Flash back to June. The writer gets a letter from his friend C. Auguste Dupin, entreating him to come to Paris. Dupin needs his help tracking down Ernest Valdemar, who’s responsible for sending Dupin’s grandparents to the guillotine during the French Revolution. When the two friends meet, Dupin tells Poe he’s sure Valdemar forged the letter and had reason to lure Poe to Paris. Valdemar appears to be working with Poe’s nemesis, George Reynolds, whose father was falsely imprisoned for the assaults of more than 50 women that were committed by Poe’s maternal grandparents decades earlier. Street fulfills the promise of the tantalizing opening with a twisty and nail-biting plot. Fans of other superior fictional treatments of Poe will be enthralled. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (May)

Publishers Weekly

Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead is a brilliant historical whodunit. The prose is perfectly Poe—at once drenched with wonder and dread. Poe’s presentation as a wounded, sorrowful, intelligent, and complicated man is believable and alluring. The story’s opening is a cataclysm of promise. It’s a promise that is kept by the twisty, surprising, and suspense-filled plot, not to mention the perfect climax that answers every question with style. Empire of the Dead is everything a reader of traditional mysteries or an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe could possibly want.

Mystery Scene Magazine - Benjamin Boulden

This is a wonderful and imaginative climax to Karen Lee Street’s trilogy featuring Edgar Allan Poe, novelist, poet, editor and critic, a central figure of American literature and regarded by many as the inventor of detective fiction.In an exciting and wonderfully atmospheric read.

Crime Review - John Cleal

A feast for all the senses; Karen Lee Street is a painter with a palette of exciting, unusual, and provocative words. A historical mystery that will entice readers into exploring Paris’s magical, mysterious past and will no doubt eventually lead them to revisit Poe’s literary masterpieces.

Criminal Element

"Edgar Allan Poe essentially invented the detective story in 1841, with the first of his tales involving the French investigator C. Auguste Dupin. The premise of Karen Lee Street’s series of Poe-narrated novels—the latest being Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead—is that Dupin was a real person and a close friend of Poe’s, and that the two shared several adventures. Ms. Street evokes Poe’s unique sensibility through passages of inspired prose, in a narrative that preserves the spooky penumbra surrounding Poe’s enduring legend.

The Wall Street Journal Tom Nolan

In a brisk, vivid narrative that includes magic, alchemy, metempsychosis (the transfer of souls between bodies), and the pain of loss, Street details new life for Dupin, and for Poe, a reunion with his beloved. Superlative historical mystery, capturing the tone of the time and Poe's lasting literary legacy.

Booklist (starred)

"Street’s slightly self-deprecating and occasionally darkly humorous narrative echoes Poe’s style and fashions him as the somewhat unwilling hero of his own story."

BookPage [praise for the Poe and Dupin Series]

The twists and turns of the plot are cunningly weaved, and Street’s expertly crafted prose and dialogue could easily have come from the pen of Poe himself. I really enjoyed this novel, found it very easy to get into (I do sometimes find period-style writing to be difficult to warm to), and genuinely didn’t want to put it down. I found myself emotionally invested into Poe and Dupin’s battle against their respective nemeses and even though I’d not read the previous books in this series, I was able to get straight into the story. Whether you’re a fan of Poe himself, or just detective stories, this is one series to get onto your book shelf (or e-book reader of choice).

British Fantasy Society - Matthew Johns

In a brisk, vivid narrative that includes magic, alchemy, metempsychosis (the transfer of souls between bodies), and the pain of loss, Street details new life for Dupin, and for Poe, a reunion with his beloved. Superlative historical mystery, capturing the tone of the time and Poe's lasting literary legacy.

Booklist

Street’s slightly self-deprecating and occasionally darkly humorous narrative echoes Poe’s style and fashions him as the somewhat unwilling hero of his own story.

BookPage [Praise for the Poe and Dupin mystery series]

"Street’s slightly self-deprecating and occasionally darkly humorous narrative echoes Poe’s style and fashions him as the somewhat unwilling hero of his own story."

BookPage

2020-03-30
What nemesis has tricked the noted American author into coming to Paris, and why?

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.

The third co-starring vehicle for Poe and the detective he created is a juicy gothic potboiler.

Kirkus Reviews