Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru

Ooh I did like this one! It’s as Edgar is back! The writing is very reminiscent of his and the time in which he lived. The setting is as authentic as they come and the stuffed birds! Oh the macabre things you will see in this novel. Never has the phrase  “murder of crows” seemed so apt.

There’s a delicious frisson in an historical read when a real life character/writer gets involved with the type of events he normally writes about. But when Poe’s friend, Miss Helena Loddiges, daughter of a collector of rare birds arrives at his house, things start to get creepy. She’s a taxidermist and can tell Poe a lot about the strange parcels he’s been receiving. Creepy miniature effigies...(Remember the Miniature Killer in CSI but even creepier!)

There’s some very graphic and vivid scenes of death and dissection of animals so watch out for that and have a bucket handy, but don’t let it spoil what is a brilliantly woven tale of gothic gruesomeness.

I think Karen Lee Street must have met Edgar Allan Poe in a previous life. I imagine she wears black crinoline  dresses all the time and only works by candlelight. She can obviously cook - the ingredients in this Poe pie burst into life as you devour with your eyes. There’s pickings of Poe delights throughout such as lines and characters from the original books which creep in to the novel to give the true fan a frisson of excitement.

there’s a lot in this novel - religious struggles, a lost jewel, an arch enemy, dead birds and a great deal more. Pull that string of all these threads and see the spider’s web of gory grandeur come to life.

Do NOT read at night or in the dark!
Looking forward to reading more!

A very enjoyable book. It's a very interesting mix of historical and fiction characters, very well written and with a fascinating and entertaining plot.
I really liked it.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Oneworld Publications and Netgalley for this ARC

Karen Lee Street channels Poe's writing style with panache in this piece of historical fiction, a horror mystery that is stitched with birds in a mutiplicity of forms, both macabre and wondrous. Set in Philadephia in 1844, the city is struggling to live up to its famous spirit of brotherly love with murder, violence and riots targeting recent immigrants, the Irish Catholics in particular, with Protestant nativists taking against them and their papist beliefs. Poe lives with his fragile wife, Virgina/Sissy, who is suffering from serious health issues, and his hardworking, helpful mother-in-law, Muddy. Out of the blue, Poe begins to receive a string of packages with contents that inspire horror and fear. He is convinced his old foe, George Rhynwick Williams, poses a clear and present danger. In a story that features Grip, Charles Dicken's Raven, ornithomancy, kidnapping, the stealing of valuable texts, ghosts, murder, a legendary Peruvian tribe, lost love, old enemies, greed, and a fabulous jewel, Poe endeavours to get to the bottom of a mystery with his friend, Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, that brings a chilling menace and threats to his life and those close to him.

Poe receives a visit from an old friend, the eccentric Helena Loddiges from England, with her original form of dress, an accomplished taxidermist with an obsession for hummingbirds. She wants him to look into the deaths deemed accidental that she is convinced were anything but. Bird collectors, Andrew Mathews and his son, Jeremiah, were working for Helena's father prior to their deaths. Helena claims to have been visited by ghosts and receiving messages from birds that point to the Mathews being murdered. Poe is sceptical, but Helena is a friend so he begins to look into the bird collectors, and Andrew Mathews strange journal with the series of errors contained within it. He is helped by Father Keane from the St Augustine's Academy prior to his untimely demise. Encountering actress, Mrs Reynolds, married to George Rhynwick Williams writing inferior plays for her, the pair have shed their old names in the US, Poe is assured her husband's feud with him has come to an end. Joined by Dupin, Poe comes across a professor looking to fund a trip to Peru for treasures and more, whilst trying to get to the truth of what happened to the Mathews.

This is an eerie and creepy read at times, with the author using bird motifs throughout with great success as she creates a compelling historical mystery. She deploys rich descriptions to portray a Philelphia of that time, and her stylish prose mirrors that of Edgar Allan Poe's writings so well. I love the way Sissy, despite her ill health, insists on playing such a pivotal part to help her husband and her dear friend, Helena. Even Dupin is forced to acknowledge the importance of her role. My particular highlights are the skill with which Karen Lee Street integrates birds in such a diversity of ways in the narrative and the character of Helena. A wonderful read that harks backs to murder mysteries from a long gone past that I recommend highly! Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

The novel is a clever reimagining of Poe solving mysteries with his fictional detective, the Chevalier Auguste C. Dupin. This wonderfully inventive idea captures the essence of the classic murder mysteries of Poe, who wrote the precursor to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. As Dr Watson is to Holmes, in Poe's books his character Dupin is clearly very friendly with the anonymous chronicler of his work and this current book makes sense of that: casting Poe himself in that role as chronicler. 

I would highly recommend reading the first book in this series, prior to undertaking this one. That is because there are many references to the previous story and the characters therein. I read it independent of the first book and constantly felt behind on the plot. For example, Poe's arch enemy makes references to a family grudge held between his own family and Poe's but the content of that is not expanded upon.

The writing style of this book is fabulous and Street keeps the plot moving. There were two mysteries that remained unsolved at the book's conclusion and I really wanted to those to be tied up, but perhaps that's to carry over to book #3... 

Many thanks to NetGalley, Oneworld Publications and Karen Lee Street for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.