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Disquiet Heart
Disquiet Heart
Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Series, Book 2
"A master storyteller." — New York Times Book Review
Pittsburgh, 1847: A cholera epidemic rages, and young women are disappearing...
Poe is devastated by the death of his beloved wife and travels to Pittsburgh for a change of scenery, reuniting with Augie Dubbins, now a young man in search of adventure.
Upon their arrival in Pittsburgh, Augie and Poe discover that several young women have disappeared over the past six months, adding to the unease caused by a recent cholera epidemic. Poe and Augie traverse the gritty city in hopes of discovering the whereabouts of these women, and their captor.
Additional Praise for Disquiet Heart:
"Moody, emotionally tortured, and convincingly atmospheric, (Disquiet Heart provides) a graphically described descent into Poe's opiate addictions."—Kirkus Reviews
"A master storyteller." — New York Times Book Review
Pittsburgh, 1847: A cholera epidemic rages, and young women are disappearing...
Poe is devastated by the death of his beloved wife and travels to Pittsburgh for a change of scenery, reuniting with Augie Dubbins, now a young man in search of adventure.
Upon their arrival in Pittsburgh, Augie and Poe discover that several young women have disappeared over the past six months, adding to the unease caused by a recent cholera epidemic. Poe and Augie traverse the gritty city in hopes of discovering the whereabouts of these women, and their captor.
Additional Praise for Disquiet Heart:
"Moody, emotionally tortured, and convincingly atmospheric, (Disquiet Heart provides) a graphically described descent into Poe's opiate addictions."—Kirkus Reviews
Reviews-
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April 1, 2002
Atmospheric and cleverly researched, this shaky sequel to Silvis's well-received On Night's Shore
(2001), which introduced precocious street urchin Augie Dubbins and his mystery-solving sidekick, Edgar A. Poe, takes time to build up a head of steam, in large part because the narrator, at age 17 and no longer an engaging waif, dwells too long on his career shift from farmhand to budding journalist. In early 1847, Poe and Augie find themselves the guests of Dr. Alfred Brunrichter, a Poe admirer who has lured the celebrated author to Pittsburgh, Pa., with promises of a remunerative speaking tour. In the event, the good doctor keeps Poe so drugged, or sloshed with claret, that he stumbles through his various readings and lectures. Envious of all the attention lavished on Poe, Augie attempts to establish his own writing career while courting a young teacher's assistant. Poe, whose dear consumptive child-wife has recently gone to her grave, jerks awake for brief marionette cameos that are just intriguing enough to make one wish he were telling the story rather than Augie, whose Victorian posturings on life slow the story to a snail's pace. (Reprints of two of Augie's articles drag the proceedings further.) When Poe finally assumes center stage after Augie becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, the plot picks up and races to a sparkling denouement. Poe's haunting ghost, alas, is not enough to rescue a basically flat, overwrought narrative that invokes some of the mystery of Poe's stories but none of their majesty. Agent, Peter Rubie. (May 20)FYI:The author's novel
An Occasional Hell was a finalist for the 1993 Hammett Prize. - The Blue Iris Review "There have been, in the past five or six years, several books written with Edgar Allan Poe as a protagonist. None has brought the man so clearly to life as Mr. Silvis has done."
- Publishers Weekly "Atmospheric and cleverly researched, (Disquiet Heart) races to a sparkling denouement."
- Kirkus Reviews "Moody, emotionally tortured, and convincingly atmospheric, (Disquiet Heart provides) a graphically described descent into Poe's opiate addictions."
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Randall Silvis has a well-deserved reputation as a writer of stylish crime fiction. This most recent effort, a sequel to On Night's Shore, takes us to America in the 1840s, specifically to Pittsburgh, as Edgar Allan Poe and his Watson/Boswell, August Dubbins, track down a serial killer of young women.... Silvis' sly symbolism, intellectual play and literary allusions make his novel an appropriate portrait of the twin-souled, enigmatic man whose detective stories have shown us both the dark motives of the soul and the power of reason to penetrate its mysteries."
- The Pittsburgh Tribune Review "The brash, budding city (of Pittsburgh)—a mere sapling to New York City—breeds chaos in its developing neighborhoods, industry and identity...the perfect backdrop for 17-year-old Augie Dubbins' struggle with manhood. The novel offers intrigue—the mysterious disappearance of five women from the city's gritty working class—but is most compelling when exploring Dubbins' growing pains and the depths of his disquiet heart."
- Washington Post Book World "The novel's appeal lies in its haunted atmosphere and its morally nuanced portrait of Poe himself. Silvis creates a flawed Poe who vividly embodies the moral polarities."
- The Mean Streets Journal "Disquiet Heart is atmospheric and engaging...especially noteworthy for its accurate and evocative portrayal of early 19th century Pittsburgh. What's more, the climax to the story-and the absolutely chilling solution to the mystery-reads almost like something out of one of Poe's own stories.... The final pages with Poe and Dubbins together on the trail of the miscreants literally vibrate with energy, tension and electricity.... Part ratiocinative detective story, part literary thriller, and part gothic horror tale, Disquiet Heart succeeds on any number of different levels. This is a richly textured story, vivid with emotion and period detail that is not afraid to probe both the heights and depths of human experience."
