The American Boy - Softcover

Andrew Taylor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007109601 ISBN 13: 9780007109609

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004

Synopsis

Interweaving real and fictional elements, The American Boy is a major new literary historical crime novel in the tradition of An Instance of the Fingerpost and Possession. England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to a young American boy and the boy's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes caught up in her family's twisted intrigues. Then a brutal crime is committed, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies -- a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child, at the heart of these macabre events, yet mysterious -- what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?

About this title

About the Author:

Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of novels, including the Dougal and Lydmouth crime series, the historical thrillers Bleeding Heart Square and The Anatomy of Ghosts, the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and The American Boy, his No. 1 bestselling historical novel which was a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club choice. He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it twice) and the CWA's prestigious Diamond Dagger, awarded for sustained excellence in crime writing. He also writes for the Spectator. He lives with his wife Caroline in the Forest of Dean.

From AudioFile:

Through the voice of Alex Jennings, we are guided through a tale of darkness and romance, intrigue and mystery, which features Edgar Allan Poe's father and young Poe himself as the epon-ymous boy. Jennings reads with such enormous variety that we are consumed by his characterizations, which include wheezing drunkards, schoolboys, and shy housemaids. He fulfills the role of a schoolmaster who is haphazardly drawn into the lives of two of his students. Through their families he becomes entangled in a network of questions and oddities that could result in his own death. The listener becomes completely absorbed with the persona of the novel. J.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0007109601
• ISBN 13: 9780007109609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512