Mrs. Poe

I read "Mrs. Poe" a few months ago when I picked it up from the library. Published, appropriately enough, around Halloween 2013, it tells the fictionalized story of the actual widely rumored affair between Edgar Allen Poe and American poet, Frances Osgood. The story is interesting and contains a combination of romance and mystery. But as I was reading it, I felt like the author was name dropping almost every well known figure of that time period and some of the events that happened seemed too made-up to be true. When I finished I immediately went to the internet to do some quick research and found that some of the most unbelievable events really did happen! Score one for author Lynn Cullen and shame on me.

Don't get me wrong, I liked this novel. The fact that after reading it I wanted to do more research only increases my need to recommend it to you. If you have a fascination with Poe, you owe it to yourself to see this side of an extremely complicated man. Just don't expect Cullen to hint at any explanation for Poe's death.