The Pale Blue Eye

                                      

                             The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

In October 1830, officials at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., discover the hanged body of a cadet. Hours later, after the cadet’s body has been moved to an ice house for storage until burial, they make an even more shocking discovery: The cadet’s heart has been stolen, carved out of his body.

Enter Gus Landor, a New York City constable who has retired to the nearby Hudson River town of Buttermilk Falls. Based on Gus’ legendary reputation for code breaking, riot control, and “the gloveless interrogation,” the Academy’s commander enlists his help in solving the crime and saving the reputation of the school, which at less than 30 years old “had not earned the distinction of permanence.”

As Gus begins his investigation, hampered by the Academy’s many rules about his access to the campus and the cadets, he meets Cadet Fourth Classman Poe…Edgar Allan Poe. Gus observes that “nothing about him was quite right. Or would ever be.” Poe makes a proposal about the culprit’s identity: “To remove a man’s heart is to traffic in symbol. Who better equipped for such labor than a poet?” And after several of Poe’s suggestions prove helpful, Gus receives permission for him to serve as his assistant, giving Gus an insider’s perspective on the Academy.

In Gus and Poe, Bayard has drawn a compelling and likable “odd couple” with distinctly different voices. As the narrator, Gus creates a disarming, intimate tone, addressing us throughout as Reader. Much like Peter Falk’s Columbo character, Gus uses his Everyman demeanor, feigned ignorance, self-deprecation, and keen powers of observation to put his interview subjects at ease and elicit telling details about the case. Poe, on the other hand, is a bombastic, poetry-spouting, French-translating nerd with a wildly sophisticated vocabulary that makes him social poison…sort of a West Point version of Steve Urkel. After asking Poe a question, Gus notes, “No simple yeses or nos with him. Everything had to be freighted down with allusions, appeals to authority.” Poe’s many written reports to Gus, which appear as chapters in the book, are delightfully overwrought. In one, for example, a simple smile becomes “dentate effluence.”

The plot contains many twists and turns, including additional deaths, missing hearts, failed romances, and quite literal cliff-hangers. The possible suspects are numerous too, including at some points Gus and Poe themselves. The final 100 pages are so suspenseful that I read nonstop. The mysteries continued to unravel until the very last page, with Poe and poetry ultimately holding the key to the solution. Bayard masterfully combines character, plot, and language to create a spellbinding story that will appeal to fans of mystery, suspense, thrillers, historical fiction, and of course Edgar Allan Poe.

Reviewed by Sassy Librarian

Comments

[Judith Garry]

What a fabulous review! I'm on line tracking this book down now. I can't wait to read it, and the fifty or so books in my stack will just have to wait. Thank you.