I got caught up in this investigation into the death of Edgar Allan Poe and enjoyed reading it but I would be careful about recommending this book to someone else. I only know about two people who would be interested enough to read this. It was pretty dry reading. This author is seriously detail oriented.

Because of all that detail, I also feel that I would like to agree with the author's conclusions. The other theories that Poe's death came as a direct result of either alcohol or drugs, diabetic coma or epilepsy seemed either too easy or too unlikely. I thought that the rabies theory was interesting but the evidence for it was even less than convincing.

Walsh tracks Poe for the whole week before he died, minute by minute. And that's both the strength and the weakness of the book. Going back and forth over that week and all the possible scenarios minute by minute means that the investigation is very thorough (Gil would be proud) but, by the end, I was glad it was over. ( )

I got caught up in this investigation into the death of Edgar Allan Poe and enjoyed reading it but I would be careful about recommending this book to someone else. I only know about two people who would be interested enough to read this. It was pretty dry reading. This author is seriously detail oriented.

Because of all that detail, I also feel that I would like to agree with the author's conclusions. The other theories that Poe's death came as a direct result of either alcohol or drugs, diabetic coma or epilepsy seemed either too easy or too unlikely. I thought that the rabies theory was interesting but the evidence for it was even less than convincing.

Walsh tracks Poe for the whole week before he died, minute by minute. And that's both the strength and the weakness of the book. Going back and forth over that week and all the possible scenarios minute by minute means that the investigation is very thorough (Gil would be proud) but, by the end, I was glad it was over. ( )

This book is actually two books. The first half, the author gives a fairly accurate account of Poe's last few days as well as a run-down of the various theories on his death, including the origins of many of those theories. The author's narrative voice snidely editorializes about each of these theories and chides many of them for lacking evidence. The second half of the book is his own editorialized theory which hinges on nearly no evidence at all. ( )

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 > Death and burial/Authors, American > 19th century > Biography/Authors, American > 19th century > Death