Edgar Allan Poe and The London Monster

By Karen Lee Street

Summer, 1840. Edgar Allan Poe arrives in London to meet his friend C. Auguste Dupin, in the hope that the great detective will help him solve a family mystery. For Poe has inherited a mahogany box containing sheathes of letters that implicate his grandparents in some of London’s most heinous and scandalous crimes – those committed by the so-called London Monster who, for two years, terrorized the city’s streets, stalking attractive, well-to-do young women, slicing their clothing and their derrières.

Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to accept that his grandparents – actors who struggled to make a living on the London stage – led a clandestine and nefarious double life, Poe and Dupin set out to prove the missives forgeries. But as they delve deeper into the city’s secrets, and past horrors emerge, they start to suspect that they too are being watched and preyed upon. And if they are, might their stalkers be connected to the London Monster?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Apr 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780749310

Karen Lee Street

Karen Lee Street has over twenty years international experience as a script development executive and workshop leader. She was instrumental in setting up the European Script Fund (now MEDIA Programme, development), the co-developer of numerous award-winning films from eighteen countries. As Head of Development, she evaluated hundreds of scripts each year and helped develop all 'ESF' supported projects from concept to production.

Reviews for Edgar Allan Poe and The London Monster

[pierthinker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Edgar Allen Poe leaves his family in Philadelphia and travels to London in 1840 where he meets with Auguste Dupin, the Parisian detective. Poe has received a family heirloom containing papers implicating his parents in the notorious London Monster scandals from 1790 and seeks Dupin's help in unravelling the mystery. We find that Poe is being stalked by some unknown enemy intending to kill him and that this is related to his parents' activities in some way.Nineteenth century London is well-drawn and atmospheric and the narrative is strongly realistic - there are no glaring anachronisms and the action is eminently believable for the period. As Poe succumbs to a combination of physical and psychological attacks and begins to break down tension mounts although, for my money, his foe is telegraphed a little too early and obviously for any real shocks. Poe, as the book's narrator, is the most strongly drawn character, and he is revealed as a weak, hysterical, self-absorbed bundle of neuroses throughout, no doubt based on fact, but he did leave me mumbling 'buck up, for heaven's sake!' at a number of points. I think Auguste Dupin is rather thinly drawn by comparison and comes across as rather ineffectual in supporting Poe, often giving rather anodyne and general advice. Dupin's own sub-plot feels like a separate story plugged in as a filler here.The writing is full of allusions to Poe's own writing - ravens, gothic tombs, Dupin's motivations - but I think these would be more effective as visual tropes in a film than in this novel.I enjoyed this book for its pace, its historical settings, its interweaving of real and fictional characters and events and its language. I think just a bit more effort and this would be an excellent historical mystery.