The Pale Blue Eye (Hardcover)

Starred Review. Bayard follows Mr. Timothy (2003), which brilliantly imagined the adult life of Dickens's Tiny Tim, with another tour-de-force, an intense and gripping novel set during Edgar Allan Poe's brief time as a West Point cadet. In 1830, retired New York City detective Gus Landor is living a quiet life at his Hudson Valley cottage, tormented by an unspecified personal sorrow, when Superintendent Thayer summons him to West Point to investigate the hanging and subsequent mutilation of a cadet. Poe aids Landor by serving as an inside source into the closed world of the academy, though Poe's personal involvement with a suspect's sister complicates their work. But the pair find themselves helpless to prevent further outrages; the removal of the victims' hearts suggests that a satanic cult might be at work. This beautifully crafted thriller stands head and shoulders above other recent efforts to fictionalize Poe.
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"Shockingly clever and devoutly unsentimental...reads like a lost classic. Bayard reinvigorates historical fiction." (New York Times Book Review )

"Exquisitely rendered character study, imaginatively Gothic, compelling." (Miami Herald )

"Well-wrought and suspenseful." (Buffalo News )

"Bayard has produced a nuanced, wonderfully written tale, one worthy of the old master himself." (Baltimore Sun )

"Seemlessly blends Poe into an engrossing whodunit worthy of its inspiration. " (USA Today )

"Ingenious...with a rich knowledge of Poe's life and work." (Entertainment Weekly )

"Poe, an exacting critic...would have been impressed by Bayard's intelligence and fluidity as a writer." (Oregonian )

"Finely executed prose.An exquisitely rendered character study, imaginatively gothic, compelling." (Memphis Commercial Appeal )

"This book has it all--prose, plot and a terrifying conclusion...it will have you guessing to the very end." (Hamilton Spectator (Canada) )

"Gruesomely entertaining." (New York Times )

"A superb, lyrically written yarn. Deft and delicious." (Providence Journal )

"Another literary tour de force..At novel's end, the reader may want to start again from the beginning." (Kirkus Reviews (Starred) )

"A rich and finely wrought psychological study that is a fitting tribute to Poe himself." (The Straits Times (Singapore) )

"An uncanny and original portrait. Captures the imagination with exquisite details and a compelling, disquieting story." (Denver Rocky Mountain News )

"Brilliantly plotted and completely absorbing, ending with the kind of shock that few novelists are able to deliver." (Sunday Times (London) )

"Gracefully written...Bayard's prose flows like silk, weightless but enveloping, and never shows its seams. (Salon.com )

"(A) tour-de-force.intense and gripping .(a) beautifully crafted thriller " (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

"Skillful...lyrical...Moves methodically to the suspects, the motives, and the clues that twist and turn like the Hudson itself." (Library Journal )

"Full of delightfully unexpected twists that continue to the very last pages of the novel." (Denver Post )

"Worthy of...high praise." (Bookreporter.com )

"What makes this more than a well-crafted thriller.is Bayard's gift for language. He paints incredibly vivid pictures." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution )

"Recommended. This novel is moody and rich in historic detail." (Tucson Citizen )