Books like 'The Poe Shadow'
Readers who enjoyed The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery horror thriller north-america usa maryland urban historical-fiction crime
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Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, LHN Books
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsEdgar Allan Poe was one of the most original writers in the history of American letters, a genius who was tragically misunderstood in his lifetime...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense -
St. Benet's by David Blake
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA girl thrown from a church tower, a man sacrificed to Satan, and a priest murdered at the hands of the Devil. When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure... -
The Devil's Den by Irina Shapiro
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 1540, newly married and pregnant Isobel Devlin vanished from a tiny island in Lancashire, never to be seen again.In 2020, leaving London for the first time since the pandemic began, Nicole Rayburn and Kyle Walsh head to a guesthouse in the Lake District for a much-needed holiday...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era victorian gothic suspense mystery historical fiction -
Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon... -
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The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Story by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCould the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense urban -
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsCould the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense urban -
The Loch of the Dead by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA CASE FOR FREY & McGRAY The Scottish Highlands, 1889. When a young heir receives a sinister death threat, Inspectors Frey and 'Nine-Nails' McGray answer a desperate plea to offer him protection.The detectives travel north to the remote and misty Loch Maree, site of an ancient burial ground. They must stay with the mysterious Koloman family - any one of whom might be a suspect...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement victorian thriller adult -
The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl. Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed... -
The Dance of the Serpents by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings'Properly creepy and Gothic' IAN RANKIN on the Frey & McGray mysteries... December, 1889. There have been many bad days in Edinburgh police's secret subdivision 'The Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly'. But today is surely the worst...Categorized as:
conspiracies crime historical-fiction industrial-era political-intrigue victorian thriller adult -
The Darker Arts by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMadame Katerina, Detective 'Nine Nails' McGray's most trusted clairvoyant, hosts a séance for three of Edinburgh's wealthiest families.The following morning everyone is found dead, with Madame Katerina being the only survivor. When questioned she alleges a tormented spirit killed the families for revenge...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement victorian thriller adult audiobook -
Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"New York Times" bestselling author Robert McCammon continues his triumphant return with the conclusion of an epic tale of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time....The Carolinas, 1699: After hearing damning testimony from the townspeople of Fount Royal, magistrate Isaac Woodward sentences the accused witch, Rachel Howarth, to death by burning... -
Nineteen Eighty by David Peace
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDecember 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper murders his thirteenth victim, while Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter struggles even deeper in the mire of a culture tainted with dark and sordid detail to solve one of the country's most hellish crimes...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement thriller 21st-century adult audiobook -
Gangland by Chuck Hogan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Town, an epic thriller about the secret right‑hand man of one of the most infamous unprosecuted mob bosses in American history, and the hidden crime that will bring down an empire.In the late 1970s, The Outfit has the entire city of Chicago in its hands. Tony Accardo is its fearless leader... -
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel by M.K. Wiseman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsI am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren’s call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson’s assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases...Categorized as:
historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller crime industrial-era gothic mystery -
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The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes adventure. At the end of the yew tree path of his ancestral home, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead. Close by are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Called to investigate, Holmes seems to face a supernatural foe...Categorized as:
crime industrial-era victorian historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction classics mystery -
The River of Souls by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball.What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Rookery by Emily Organ
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThere’s a killer in the slums. London 1884. When a thief robs Fleet Street reporter Penny Green, she finds herself caught up in a horrifying murder. Someone is terrorizing the residents of St Giles Rookery and Scotland Yard sends Inspector James Blakely to investigate. When the serial killer claims a victim outside the slums, Victorian London is sent into panic...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction urban victorian adult -
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom Donald Ray Pollock, author of the highly acclaimed The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff, comes a dark, gritty, electrifying (and, disturbingly, weirdly funny) new novel that will solidify his place among the best contemporary American authors.It is 1917, in that sliver of border land that divides Georgia from Alabama...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction north-america suspense -
The Beast Within by Émile Zola
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man's slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola's The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife's past...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense victorian adult -
The House of Closed Doors by Jane Steen
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn Nell Lillington's small Midwestern town of the 1870s, marriage is the obvious fate of a young woman of some social standing. Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense adult -
The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPresent day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . -
Old Bones by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe first in the groundbreaking Nora Kelly series from #1 bestselling authors Preston & Child blends the legend of the Donner party with a riveting suspense tale, taking the dynamic duo's work to new heights...Categorized as:
conspiracies crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement political-intrigue suspense thriller -
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWhen The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.The year is 1896. The city is New York...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense -
The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPart of the High Impact series this classic text is retold in an accessible style for those with a reading age of six to seven years...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense -
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The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMarch 1895. London. A month of strange happenings in the West End. First there is the bizarre murder of theater critic Jonathan McCarthy. Then the lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry for libel; the public is scandalized. Next, the ingenue at the Savoy is discovered with her throat slashed. And a police surgeon disappears, taking two corpses with him... -
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLEGENDARY THRILLER WRITER DAVID MORRELL TRANSPORTS READERS TO THE FOGBOUND STREETS OF LONDON, WHERE A KILLER PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA.The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense victorian -
The Man With No Face by Peter May
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBrussels, 1979. Jaded Edinburgh journalist Neil Bannerman arrives in the capital of European politics intent on digging up dirt. Yet it is danger he discovers, when two British men are found murdered. A CHILD WITH NO FATHER One victim is a journalist, the other a Cabinet Minister: the double-assassination witnessed by the former's autistic daughter... -
Estudio en escarlata/El sabueso de los Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLa popularidad de Sherlock Holmes ha sido inmensa e incesante... si muchos le parodiaron (a Conan Doyle) casi todos los escritores posteriores han moldeado sus héroes conforme a uno de los poliédricos aspectos del gran Sherlock. Este dejó de ser un personaje literario, se convirtió en una criatura viviente y borró la memoria de su creador... -
The Listener by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities. In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot... -
Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes by Charles Prepolec, Kim Newman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe fabled tin dispatch box of Dr. John H. Watson opens to reveal eleven all new tales of mystery and dark fantasy. Sherlock Holmes, master of deductive reasoning, confronts the irrational, the unexpected and the fantastic in the weird worlds of the Gaslight Grimoire...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement suspense victorian action-adventure adult -
The History of Things to Come by Duncan Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe mind of a genius can hold the darkest of secrets A razor-sharp thriller A Bosnian gangster is gunned down in a packed London restaurant. In his possession is a notebook once belonging to Isaac Newton. This is just the latest in a series of shocking crimes connected to objects once belonging to the famous scientist. The police are stumped and the pressure for an arrest is mounting... -
A Mask of Shadows by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIdols of the theatre Henry Irving and Ellen Terry are preparing to stage Macbeth in Edinburgh. But long before the actors hit the boards the play-house is hit with horror; the piercing, desolate wail of a banshee and a bloody message smeared on the street.Legendary Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and disgraced London sceptic Inspector Ian Frey are to investigate...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement victorian thriller adult -
Dangerous Spirits by Jordan L. Hawk
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAfter the events of Reyhome Castle, Henry Strauss expected the Psychical Society to embrace his application of science to the study of hauntings. Instead, the society humiliates and blacklists him. His confidence shaken, he can't bring himself to admit the truth to his lover, the handsome medium Vincent Night...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era maryland north-america suspense urban -
Resurrectionist by James McGee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood brings his own form of justice to the salons and slums of Regency London in the gripping sequel to 'Ratcatcher'. For the body snatchers, death is a lucrative business. But it's the corpse they leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail... -
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Entwined by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNo matter how cruelly twins are separated, their lives will always be entwined.In the newly liberated streets of modern Berlin two women, a pampered, beautiful Baroness, losing control of her mind, and a fearless wild animal trainer, facing the greatest challenge of her career, are drawn together by a series of tragic and extraordinary coincidences... -
The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLocked in an eerily quiet room on the Titanic, a dying man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888, as the Ripper murders began... -
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is an unstoppable historical thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. But he’s always one step ahead . . .London, 1839...Categorized as:
historical-fiction gothic industrial-era victorian suspense crime literary-fiction historical -
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Matthew Sweet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 66 ratings'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense -
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew. It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense urban -
The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhile on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense victorian -
Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHERE'S A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN IN JULIAN KESTREL'S BED. UNFORTUNATELY, SHE'S DEAD.Add the unflappable Julian Kestrel to the ranks of great sleuths of ages past. He's the very model of a proper Beau Brummell--except for his unusual willingness to plunge headlong into murder investigations... -
La otra bella durmiente by Phillip Margolin, Eduardo Iriarte
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter a serial killer murdered the parents of Ashley Spencer and left Casey Van Meter in a coma, Ashley wonders why her quiet, loving family was targeted by a madman and decides to go into hiding in Europe. Returning years later to bear witness when the suspect is finally apprehended and tried, her pain also resurfaces in a true crime novel written by Miles Van Meter, Casey's twin brother... -
Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEarly in life Bella Sorensen discovers the world is made only for men. They own everything: jobs, property, wives. But Bella understands what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak.A woman unhampered by scruples can take from them what she wants. And so Bella sets out to prove to the world that a woman can be just as ruthless, black-hearted and single-minded as any man... -
What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIt’s 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III’s England. Then the body of a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St... -
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Crippen by John Boyne
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJuly 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr... -
Philomel Cottage: An Agatha Christie Short Story by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time on audio.Recently swept off her feet, after a week of courting, the newly married Alix Martin is a woman obsessed by a reoccurring dream of her new husband’s murder. Each time she can see the murderer clearly and it is the mild mannered man she had almost married wreaking his revenge... -
The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsMay mercy be upon the man who finds himself the enemy of a vengeful medium…1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense victorian -
Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPostbellum America makes for a haunting backdrop in this historical and supernatural tale of moonlit cemeteries, masked balls, cunning mediums, and terrifying secrets waiting to be unearthed by an intrepid crime reporter. The year is 1869, and the Civil War haunts the city of Philadelphia like a stubborn ghost. Mothers in black continue to mourn their lost sons...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction north-america suspense urban -
Winterwood by Dorothy Eden
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPursued by a scandalous trial that rocked London society, Lavinia Hurst has escaped, penniless, to Venice. There she becomes acquainted with the Meryons - Daniel, the handsome head of the family to whom she's immediately drawn, his vicious wife, their daughter who was crippled by a tragic accident, and the great-aunt - an ancient woman of enormous wealth who is near death... -
Darkwater by Dorothy Eden
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA tale of love and peril in a haunted old English mansion. Fanny knew then that Adam felt as she did about the strange events at Darkwater. Even before the sudden death of the old Chinese amah, she had sensed a chill of menace in the atmosphere. Now there was real peril in the mists and fogs that beshrouded the ancient English estate. There was danger..
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