Tracy A. reviewed on 1/27/2012 + 3 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I liked this book more than The Poe Shadow, because the characters were more three-dimensional and likable, but it really was almost too gruesome to bear. It was an act of will to keep reading at more than one point, and I wasn't sure the gruesomeness was justified well enough by the ending.

However, it was a very good synthesis of actual events and people, including the accurate portrayal of one actual sensational crime that occurred in 1850s Boston and whose outcome in the courts resulted in a sharp change in legal precedent, plus several fictional ones. If you can take the gore, it's actually a very good book.

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