Description
Book Synopsis**Soon to be a major Netflix film starring Christian Bale and Gillian Anderson**
April 19th, 1831. In two or three hours I''ll be dead.
So begins the chilling last testament of Gus Landor, a retired New York City police constable, whose numerous talents include code-breaking, riot control and the ''gloveless interrogation''. A young cadet has been found hanged at a military academy on the shores of the Hudson River. Before his body could be buried, however, it was stolen and his heart brutally carved out.
Fearing a scandal, the top brass at West Point have summoned Landor to help catch the culprit, and keep his discoveries away from prying eyes. As Landor embarks on a thrilling adventure to solve the case, he uncovers a series of dark secrets and finds unlikely assistance in the form of a mischievous young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe.
Full of drama and unexpected twists, The Pale Blue Eye is a brilliantly haunting and atmospheric historic
Trade Review
Really outstanding crime fiction is rare . . . so it's a joy to see Louis Bayard pull off this coup . . . As gory and melodramatic as Poe's own writing . . . brilliantly plotted and completely absorbing, ending with the kind of shock that few novelists are able to deliver * Sunday Times *
Hardback fiction worth looking out for * Publishing News *
A most satisfying murder mystery * Bookseller *
Bayard's shockingly clever and devoutly unsentimental new mystery reads like a lost classic . . . Bayard reinvigorates historical fiction, rendering the 19th century as if he'd witnessed it firsthand * New York Times *
An immensely satisfying whodunit, richly imaginative . . . Good, clean homicidal fun -- Kate Saunders * The Times *
The Pale Blue Eye kept me transfixed . . . a moody, cunning mystery . . . In the course of the narrative, Bayard ingeniously weaves in motifs from Poe's work to thrilling effect * Observer *
A Dickensian thriller strong on atmosphere * Sunday Telegraph *
Louis Bayard is a writer of remarkable gifts: for language, for imagination, for that mysterious admixture of audacity and craftsmanship that signals a major talent in the making -- Joyce Carol Oates
A tour de force, an intense and gripping novel . . . This beautifully crafted thriller stands head and shoulders above other recent attempts to fictionalise Poe * Publishers Weekly *
In THE PALE BLUE EYE, Louis Bayard pays a stunning and fitting tribute to Edgar Allan Poe - not only in his crafting of a twisty, Gothic mystery that would have delighted the master himself, but in his use of a young Poe as a character. A gorgeous, melancholic tale from a fearless writer. I can't wait to see what Bayard does next -- Laura Lipman, author of TO THE POWER OF THREE
Dazzling * Scotsman *
A fictional mystery in a real historical background * Sunday Telegraph *
PRAISE FOR THE FILM
A Netflix historical thriller stuffed with Gothic flourishes * Financial Times *
An appealingly icy, moody, twisty, Gothic fiction work rooted in the same themes that Poe explored * Flickering Myth *
The Pale Blue Eye is all at once a melancholic romance, arevenger's tragedy, and an intriguing mystery * Little White Lies *
A thrilling whodunnit with an irresistible gothic mood * The Upcoming *
Moves with elegant severity, like a film about 19th-century murder should * Independent *
The Pale Blue Eye feels both fresh and reminiscent of the golden age of the Western drama * Jewish Chronicle *
As cozy as a blanket of thorns - but then, you don't go to Poe for a good cuddle, and The Pale Blue Eye gets that. This is one foreboding snow globe of a movie * Time Magazine *
