On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. The victim was Mary Rogers, a captivating twenty-year-old cigar salesgirl, who would inspire not just one of the great authors of a generation to write "The Mystery of Marie Roget" but also the inception of a whole style of literature - the crime novel. This book carefully retraces the Poe's steps as he sets out to investigate this crime and its famous re-creation with Detective Dupin in "The Mystery of Marie Roget". Stashower's tour takes the reader through the New York of the 1840s, providing a tale of intrigue, suspense and satisfaction that the great writer himself would have been proud to pen.
On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. The victim was Mary Rogers, a captivating twenty-year-old cigar salesgirl, who would inspire not just one of the great authors of a generation to write "The Mystery of Marie Roget" but also the inception of a whole style of literature - the crime novel. This book carefully retraces the Poe's steps as he sets out to investigate this crime and its famous re-creation with Detective Dupin in "The Mystery of Marie Roget". Stashower's tour takes the reader through the New York of the 1840s, providing a tale of intrigue, suspense and satisfaction that the great writer himself would have been proud to pen.
Daniel Stashower is the author of, amongst other titles, the highly acclaimed biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, Teller of Tales (ISBN 0140285741), which won the Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, and a winner of the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellowship in Detective and Crime Fiction Writing.
Writing simultaneously as novelist, biographer, historian, and sleuth, Daniel Stashower unfolds a suspenseful detective story inside a detective story inside a detective story. --Kenneth Silverman, author of Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance Daniel Stashower masterfully recreates 1840s New York and the murder that captivated the city. If you loved The Devil in the White City, you'll love The Beautiful Cigar Girl. It's an impressive work of history with all the drive and passion of a finely-tuned novel. --Harlan Coben "The Beautiful Cigar Girl is a beautiful melding of literary research, biography and creativity. Poe's New York of the 1840's is brought to life and so is Mary Rogers and those whose lives were altered by her murder. Seldom has Poe himself emerged so sympathetically as the tortured, alcoholic, brilliant and enigmatic man he was. After reading this fascinating book, no one will be able to read The Mystery of Marie Roget again without acknowledging the haunting ghosts brought forth by Stashower." --Stuart M. Kaminsky, recipient of the Mystery Writers of America 2006 Grand Master Award, and author, most recently, of Terror Town. "'Stashower makes the past so vivid you feel as if you must have been there and walked these streets yourself." --Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Assassin
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