Karen Lee Street

The famed writer and poet sails to London to engage the illustrious detective Auguste Dupin to solve a Poe family mystery, in a stylish and brilliantly constructed debut novel.

Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster

Edgar Allan Poe and C. Auguste Dupin strive unravel a mystery involving old enemies, lost soul-mates, ornithomancy, and the legendary jewel of Peru. Philadelphia, 1844. As violent tensions escalate between nativists and recent Irish immigrants, Edgar Allan Poe’s fears for the safety of his wife, Virginia, and mother-in-law, Muddy, are compounded when he receives a parcel of mummified bird parts. Has his nemesis returned to settle an old score? Just as odd is the arrival of Helena Loddiges, a young heiress who demands Poe’s help to discover why her lover died at the city’s docks on his return from an expedition to Peru. Poe is skeptical of her claims of having received messages from birds—and visitations from her lover’s ghost—but when Miss Loddiges is kidnapped, he and his friend C. Auguste Dupin must unravel a mystery involving old enemies, lost soul-mates, ornithomancy, and the legendary jewel of Peru.

A Poe and Dupin Mystery

Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru

A thrilling historical mystery about mesmerism and magic, the shadows of the past, and the endurance of love—the third novel in the author’s acclaimed Poe and Dupin series. “And I prayed that I would find a way to tell my most honorable friend, the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, the truth about how I had finally been murdered and by whom.”—EAP Summer, 1849. When Edgar Allan Poe travels to Paris to help his dear friend hunt down the elusive criminal who bought the Dupin family to ruin during the French Revolution, the sleuthing duo are engaged by the prefect of police to recover the stolen letter of an infamous Parisian salonnière. Is the thief one of the French literary greats who attend her salons, or might it be Dupin’s own enemy who is scheming to become the Emperor of France? Poe and Dupin are quickly embroiled in a deadly cat and mouse game that takes them to the treacherous tunnels of the city’s necropolis, where few who venture into the notorious Empire of the Dead manage to return from the darkness… The third in the author’s critically acclaimed Edgar Allan Poe series, Empire of the Dead is a thrilling historical mystery about alchemy, mesmerism and magic, the shadows of the past, and the endurance of love.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead

The famed writer and poet sails to London to engage the illustrious detective Auguste Dupin to solve a Poe family mystery, in a stylish and brilliantly constructed debut novel. Summer, 1840. Edgar Allan Poe sails from Philadelphia to London to meet his friend C. Auguste Dupin, with the hope that the great detective will help him solve a family mystery. For Poe has inherited a mahogany box containing a collection of letters allegedly written by his grandparents, Elizabeth and Henry Arnold. The Arnolds were actors who struggled to make a living on the London stage, but the mysterious letters suggest that the couple has a more clandestine and nefarious lifestyle, stalking well-to-do young women at night, to slice their clothing and derrieres. Poe hopes to prove the missives forgeries; Dupin wonders if perhaps they are real, but their content fantasy. Soon Poe is being stalked by someone who knows far more about his grandparents and their crimes than he does. And then he remembers disturbing attacks made upon him as a child in London—could the perpetrators be connected?

Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster: A Novel

Aimed at screenwriters, producers, development executives and educators interested in the crime genre, this book provides an invaluable basis for crafting a film story that considers both audience and market expectations without compromising originality. A brief historical overview of the crime genre is presented for context along with an analysis of various crime sub-genres and their key conventions, including: police, detective, film noir, gangster, heist, prison and serial killer. Karen Lee Street focuses on the creative use of these conventions and offers strategies for focusing theme and improving characterisation, story design, structure and dialogue. Paradigms, story patterns and writing exercises are provided to assist the script development process and strategies for revision are discussed along with key questions to consider before approaching creative or financial partners.

Karen Lee Street

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