Customer Reviews

Poe Must Die

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Fans of historical pastiches like Doctorow's "Ragtime" or Hjortsberg's "Nevermore" will enjoy this clever and action-packed yarn about Edgar Allan Poe and an adventure that embroils him toward the end of his short life. He gets to use all of his deductive powers in a nasty and occult-tinged case that would have challenged his immortal detective, C. Auguste Dupin.

It helps to have a knowledge of Poe and his works, but Olden provides plenty if biographical info along the way, so it's not necessary to be a Poe nut to enjoy it. Along the way, we meet Charles Dickens and P.T Barnum among other historical figures well known in the 1840s, and we see the seamy hell-hole that was New York in those days, as limned so well in Martin Scorsese's movie "Gangs of New York." I'd call this a tasty entertainment for a cold night-- not as conceptually gratifying as Rudy Rucker's Poe pastiche "The Hollow Earth," but worth seeking out if Poe is to your taste.

"Poe Must Die" is one of my favorite books and I've read it several times. Marc Olden takes Poe, the father of the detective story, on a dangerous journey into New York's seamy underworld on the hunt for a necromancer. Joining Poe on the hunt is a powerful Englishman, Pierce James Figg, who is a boxer and equally skilled with the pistol, cudgel, short sword and knife. The necromancer, Jonathan, has brutally killed Figg's family and Figg is going to have his revenge. Figg provides the brawn and Poe the brains as they pursue their quarry.

The book is set in the 1840s, the same era as "Gangs of New York" and it evokes the squalor and danger of the city at that time. Other historical figures like P.T. Barnum and Charles Dickens appear in the story. The character of Poe is richly drawn and you only wish that there could be a sequel to the book. Unfortunately, in real life Poe dies only a couple of years after this story would take place. But he would've enjoyed "Poe Must Die", no doubt about it. And so will you.

I originally read this book while sitting poolside in the summer of '79. I enjoyed the story so much that I've mentioned and/or recommended it to several friends over the years but no one I know has ever heard of it. With summer again upon us, I bought it again in order to experience it once more. The good news? The story still holds up after all these years. I enjoyed it just as much if not more. It is just as vivid now as it was then. How has a clueless Hollywood not stumbled over this gem between remaking remakes, unending prequels & sequels, and the usual CGI fare? If you thought Robert Downey Jr. was a good choice for Tony Stark/Iron Man and/or Sherlock Holmes, can you imagine him as Edgar Allan Poe? I can. The only negative thing that I have to say about this book deals with this edition. It appears to be a print on demand copy with no original copywrite information, spotty printing, a couple of typos, and a really crappy cover. It looks like they found John Wayne Gacy's pillowcase after he fell asleep in his Pogo The Clown makeup. Please tell me that they don't think that its supposed to look like Poe because it doesn't. My original paperback (which I still have boxed up somewhere) had an eerie painting of Poe on the cover and a clear title emblazoned on it. How could a Poe fan resist? This one? Not so much. A minor quibble to an otherwise awesome book. Read for yourself. Mr E. A. Poe awaits you. A quick note on widdershins : while it means to go counterclockwise and to keep the object you are circling to your left side, to do so, one moves to the right and not to the left as the author would lead you to believe.

This is one of Marc Olden's best books, if not his best. The story is primarily set in New York in the 1840's and not only entertains but educates. The characters are fun, Poe is a royal pain and his relationship with Figg develops in to a very touching union between two men who understand the meaning of loss. The flipping of stereotypes is also a clever technique, as Figg is English and thinks with his fists whilst Poe adds the brains and subtlety.

The secondary characters are fascinating as well, more so as they are all based on real life people. I was fascinated to find out about New York in this period.

If you like historical fiction, then I don't think you can go too far wrong than this book.

I was a huge fan of Olden's up-to-date noirish ultra tough-guy novels, and was surprised by "Poe", a historical thriller about real-life characters. I met Olden once, long ago, while in New York on business, and found him to be a confidante of quite a few law enforcement types. He taught them martial arts, at which he was a master, and in turn, they served as source material for the incredible detail in his novels. For a man with an interest in karate and realistic adventure novels, Olden was a rare find.

That he would undertake a work like "Poe", is amazing. For a tough guy who associated with tough guys, spending months in the public library must have been a labor of love, poring over books and maps to re-create Poe's world. Olden's was a phenomenal task, which created a phenomenal adventure story -- it's a must read for any thriller, adventure or history fan.