A review by sandrinepal
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

1.0

Ultimately, I did not enjoy [b:The Poe Shadow|9533|The Poe Shadow|Matthew Pearl|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432249982s/9533.jpg|1437022]. I read [a:Matthew Pearl|6247|Matthew Pearl|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1219817456p2/6247.jpg]'s [b:The Dante Club|18402|The Dante Club|Matthew Pearl|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397659377s/18402.jpg|2164481] over ten years ago, around the same time as I read [a:Donna Tartt|8719|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1409871301p2/8719.jpg]'s [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327733397s/29044.jpg|221359] and in my recollection, the two were comparable. Not so with this later endeavor from [a:Matthew Pearl|6247|Matthew Pearl|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1219817456p2/6247.jpg]. The writing felt convoluted more than era-appropriate and the plot of the entire book is 360 pages' worth of circling the drain. I kept waiting for something significant to happen and shed new light on the entire story, but it never did happen. It is apparent from this book that Pearl has a great scholarly interest in the topic of Poe's last days and death, but it would have been better if he had couched his findings in a non-fiction book, rather than surrounding it with all this hodge-podge of political intrigue and B-movie-worthy, Victorian-grade violence.