I recommend this book if only to find out more about Poe. For example, I had had no idea that the guy married his underage cousin?! The story is gripping and the plot surprises. Recommended!

I liked this book. I listened to the audio version of the book and perhaps the good narrator, who was very good with the voices and added drama where it was needed, had a lot to do with my enjoyment. Maybe, maybe not. It was a little slow at times and there were a couple of bad points in the recording, where it just went haywire.

I read a number of reviews here and I agree with them that the protagonist, Quentin Clark, was a bit hard to like. He was annoying, whiny, and excitable and I thought he was a bit insane to become so wrapped up in a "conspiracy theory", to the point that he almost lost everything that he held dear, but he was determined to get to the bottom of what he felt was the disgraceful way that his favorite author, Edgar A. Poe, was buried after his death. He wanted an explanation and wasn't going to let something as silly as real life get in the way of his getting that explanation. His dogged determination helped to bring new information to light. He was the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

The mystery of Poe's final days will remain a mystery because we have to look back through the vale of time. We, here in the 21st century recognize the importance of Poe and his body of works, but he was not seen that way during his lifetime. I think Matthew Pearl did a good job with this story and even brought new information to light. I like the book and would recommend it to others.

Aku belum pernah satu kalipun membaca karya-karya Edgar Allan Poe..dan ketika aku mendapatkan buku ini, dengan harga yang amat istimewa pastinya..disebuah pameran buku beberapa bulan yang lalu..kisah yang dilatar belakangi mystery-thriller dan sedikit (banyak) unsur selidik menyelidiki.. waah seneng dong!! Ini kan termasuk salah satu genre favoritku..buku hampir setebal 800-an halaman..yang terbagi didalamnya menjadi; Buku I (8 Oktober 1849), Buku II (Paris), Buku III (Baltimore 1851)..Buku IV dan Buku V (mungkin) lupa saking banyaknya..sesi-sesi dalam buku ini..walaupun sangat..sangat tebal sepertinya yang terlihat fisiknya, aku pikir terjemahan buku ini cukup enak dan nyaman untuk dibaca..tanpa terasa kisah dari Quentin Clark ini terus..dan terus mengalir dengan sendirinya..yang amat disayangkan disini..adalah masalah kertasnya..kertas dari buku ini..yang.. eeuuww!! Kertasnya entah kenapa berbau ‘kurang sedap’..dan mirip seperti kertas koran..untuk jangka waktu yang panjang kurasa buku ini gak akan bertahan lama..heeuuhhh sungguh amat disayangkan..mengingat cerita dan riset yang dibangun untuk menyelesaikan 1 buah buku ini..Matthew Pearl..lulusan Harvard University..dengan yudisium summa cum laude dalam bidang studi Sastra Inggris dan Amerika serta mendapatkan gelar doktor dalam bidang hukum di Yale Law School..dan saat ini mengajar mata kuliah sastra di Harvard dan Emerson College..aku sampai berpikir dan mengandai-andai..jangan-jangan tokoh fiktif Quentin Clark adalah Matthew Pearl sendiri!! Melihat betapa Quentin sangat..sangat mengidolakan penulis favoritnya..dan betapa mendetail cerita yang ia kisahkan dari masing-masing tokoh rekaan dan tulisan karya Edgar Allan Poe..pada bagian pembuku tokoh Quentin ini merasa sedih, kecewa, marahnya.. ketika penulis favoritnya dicemooh masyarakat pada ’masa itu’ sebagai seorang pengarang kelas-dua yang menemui ajalnya dalam keadaan miskin sebagai pemabuk.. kematian Edgar Allan Poe..memaksanya untuk membersihkan nama baik Poe..dan untuk itu ia mengupayakan segala cara termasuk mengorbankan reputasinya sebagai pengacara di Baltimore..dengan bantuan dari Auguste Deponte dan Baron yang sombong Claude Dupin..berhasilkan Quentin Clark (atau Matthew Pearl disini) memecahkan kasus penyebab kematian yang ‘tak wajar’ dari penulis yang sangat ia hormati karya-karyanya itu?? Dan apakah ini memang sesuai dengan fakta yang ada?? Kita lihat saja..

For people who like Poe. I am a huge fan of Poe's poetry and short stories. This is a fun read for people who enjoy his works or people new to him and want to learn more about his life through a story.

As a big fan of Poe and unsolved mysteries, I was very excited to read something that would pay tribute to both! However, I was sorely disappointed after reading...

The book shares quite a few similarities with the Sherlock Holmes series (average main character meeting eccentric man of high intelligence to solve a mystery), but comes up short in comparison to the quality and intrigue of Doyle's storytelling. I hate to say it, but this book feels like something you'd find on a fanfiction site like AO3 or fanfiction.net rather than something that was officially reviewed and published.

The main character is clearly meant to mirror the reader, much like the character of John Watson would do in Sherlock Holmes, but his characterization makes it fall flat. He's immature and entitled, despite being an adult who works at a law firm, and says and does things that gave me horrible second-hand embarrassment. Usually a character I don't personally like could be forgiven, but the problem lies in the fact that the story is told in his perspective, coloring the entirety of the story in his warped view of the world and making it hard to enjoy reading.

The plot itself wasn't too bad, a fascinating look at Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious death, but a lot of the prose comes off as slightly awkward and stilted. Aside from the amateur writing, the story wasn't well-structured enough to maintain a consistent tone or mood--something that was very distracting as a reader. It seems Pearl tried to make too many things happen at the same time, which ended up confusing the important details and preventing the story from flowing smoothly.

The most disappointing part of the story, in my opinion, was how underwhelming it was as a mystery. Arguably the most fun part of a mystery is trying to solve it alongside the main character(s), but sadly this book doesn't really give the reader that opportunity, instead opting for an information dump at the end tying together the loose ends left by the poor integration of plot details.

The book tells us the story of a young lawyer, Quentin Clark, who decides to investigate Edgar Alan Poe's mysterious death. Throughout this venture of his', he gets really close to self-destruction. Okay, that was long story really short. The point is, starting from the main character: Mr. Clark is a person who has everything: wealth, a bright future, a woman that loves him, a loyal friend, and a good reputation among the society of Baltimore in 1849. Yet he chooses to risk it all in favor of the truth. He wants justice for a person he has never met in person, but admires him too much to let his personality fade; He is willing to get some help to complete his purpose, thus he really does not seem to care about the glory and recognition; I have to confess that he can be really annoying, when he lets Duponte explain almost everything regarding Poe's death, however I really admired his patience and devotion, not only to the dead author, but also to his closest partner.
Secondly, we have Duponte; he seems that he does not care about anything, and I have noticed that during the whole book. Nevertheless, in the end, when he comes back to help Clark realize the truth, while the latter is in a dilemma that might cost him his fortune, he proves that he is not made of stone. He has a small trace of compassion in him. He might have intervened the opportune moment either to save Clark or to save Poe's reputation (or, as I want to believe, both). At any rate, he does not confirm my assumption of a man without honor and emotions.
And then there are other characters, such as Ms. Blum, Peter Stuart, the Baron and Bonjour who either help him, or make things difficult for him. Everybody, and I mean everybody, has their role. But that is common to any book, right? Especially when it comes to mystery books.
The thing is, every mystery book includes death, or an assumption that someone died or is going to die, it needs the main character who will investigate the crime, and it needs the good guys and the bad guys. That is why I focused mainly on the characters than the plot itself; because the plot of this book is not something that I have not seen or I will not see again; however, the way of writing is one of the unforgettable ones; the way the characters change their attitudes and affect the plot, I find it unique. This book was not a matter of plot; for me, it had to do with the way of expression, the way in which Pearl presents the facts, the way in which the heroes interact or not with each other. It is controversial whether this story would create for me the same thoughts and feelings if it had been written by another author. It does not necessarily need to be loved, but it is sure worth casting an eye on it.

This book was a huge disappointment. The plot--a young 19th century attorney investigates the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe--seemed promising, but was not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped. I attribute this to two failings: failure to create likeable characters, and failure to adhere to the adage "brevity is the soul of wit."

On the first count: the protagonist, Quentin Clark, is childish and insipid. He's an irritating hero, but what's worse is that he isn't a hero who moves the plot forward. The action is either effected by someone else or happened upon by Clark accidentally. It's also difficult to take him seriously because of his blind, obsessive Poe-worship (which occasionally reads more like the author's, making it just plain awkward). As for the other characters, they all represent archetypes: reserved but brilliant detective, beautiful femme fatale, proper young woman, conniving villain, etc. etc. Now, these archetypes become archetypes because they work, certainly; but it's amazing that these characters are so glancingly treated that they aren't developed further than that in the span of nearly 400 pages.

That brings me to the second count. The book was far too long--especially the long-awaited explication of Poe's death. It was so drawn out that reading it became tedious and I no longer cared about it. I just wanted to get through it. Poe's detective stories were short stories, something Pearl would have done well to remember. As Shakespeare said, brevity is the soul of wit. Dragging out a joke ruins the punchline, and grandstanding with a dénouement is just annoying.

Because of these things (and a few other minor annoyances, like the truly sad attempt at emulating 19th century voice), I ceased to enjoy this book after about the second page. I finished it merely as a matter of principle, and do not recommend it for anyone.

The story itself was interesting but the long drawn out story seemed unnecessary. It taking place in the 1800s and being first person point of view the wording the author used seems authentic to the time - which caused it to be difficult to read.

I agree with several other reviewers that the last part of the book is just a bore. I am not a mystery novel reader, so maybe it is common to constantly recap the previous events, but I found this irritating. I struggled to finish the book. The book does detail real and new facts about the death of Edgar Allen Poe and even uses quotes from newspaper articles from the time. Those who are huge Poe fans may find this fascinating. At the end of the book, however, there a historical notes section that describes most of the findings, so one could just read that instead.

Initially, I was into it. Then it started feeling drawn out and I wanted them to get to the point. Then, when they got to the point, it wasn't very interesting. It was OK, but the choice on theory of what happened to Poe was clearer after reading the Historical Note. I found that more interesting than the latter third of the book if I am being truthful.

ahh... buku misteri yang penuh teka teki..
tempo awal yang lambat
si penyelidik, pengacara quentin clark yang berpapasan dengan pengangkut jenazah poe
kematian yang tidak sewajarnya
penyelidikan di tengah cintanya pada hattie blum
mencari ahli analis ke paris
menemukan satu auguste duponte
ditemukan oleh baron dupin

tempo yang mulai cepat
duponte dan dupin saling bersaing mendapatkan fakta
adu kuat penyelidikan misteri
, siapa yang lebih pintar? atau lebih cerdik? akan lebih termahsyur?
saling curi informasi...
hattie blum? kemanakah cintamu?? maaf aku tak memperhatikanmu.. (quentin)
inikah akhir

tempo yang lambat, namun sukar diikuti
analisa tak terduga
simpulan akhir bahagia atau apa??
akhir kisah cinta quentin

Akhirnyaaa... aku selesai melahap buku 'sexy' setebal hampir 800 ini...
Genre detektif memang kesukaanku. Kalau ditambah dengan unsur sejarah, lebih menantang lagi. Apalagi sejarah itu tentang seorang yg punya nama nesar di dunia kesusasteraan dunia: Edgar Allan Poe.

Hampir semua unsur di buku ini adalah fakta sejarah. Penulisnya, Matthew Pearl hanya merangkai berbagai fakta, data, opini dari berbagai sumber untuk membentuk sebuah penalaran yang masuk akal. Yang bukan fakta adalah tokoh2 sentralnya: Quentin Clark, sang pengacara pengagum Poe yang ingin membersihkan nama baik Poe, dan 2 role-model karakter Dupin dalam novel detektif Poe: Auguste Duponte dan Baron Dupin. Meski hasil rekaan, ketiga tokoh tadi diambil dari gabungan karakter beberapa orang yg secara nyata dihubungkan dengan misteri kematiannya. Ada banyak orang yang mungkin adalah role-model Dupin, namun tentu saja yang tahu hanya Poe sendiri...

Aku tadi bingung, mau memberi bintang 3 atau 4 untuk buku ini, mengingat terjemahan dari Q-Press yang masih belum bagus, meski tetap tidak mengurangi rasa maupun isi buku ini, hanya kadang kurang tepat saja. Yang mengganggu justru typo di sana-sini (kalo ini mungkin bukan cerita baru ya..). Anyway, akhirnya aku tetap memberikan 4 bintang, karena, hei...siapa yang peduli dengan typo kalau ceritanya sendiri memang bagus? Toh akhirnya hanya getaran dari cerita itu yang masih menggema di hati, sedang ejaannya sudah gak ditoleh sama sekali deh...

Asyiknya lagi, proses penalaran terhadap misteri kematian Poe didasarkan pada karakter Poe yang diambil dari buku-bukunya. Jadi saranku, kalo mau baca buku ini, paling tidak bacalah dulu beberapa kisah detektif Poe.

Review lengkapnya, tunggu di blogku ya...