Read an Excerpt
England 1819. Two enigmatic Americans arrive in
London and soon after a bank collapses. A man is found dead on a building
site; another goes missing in the teeming stews of the city’s notorious
Seven Dials district. A deathbed vigil ends in an act of theft, and a
beautiful heiress flirts with her inferiors. A strange destiny connects each
of these events to an American boy, Edgar Allan Poe, who was brought to
England by his foster father and sent to the leafy village of Stoke
Newington to be educated.
Soon the intrigue enmeshes a poor schoolteacher, Thomas Shield, who
struggles to understand what is happening before it destroys him and those
he loves. But the truth, like the youthful Poe himself, has its origins in
the new world as well as the old.
An Unpardonable Crime is a 21st-century novel with a 19th-century
voice. It is both a multi-layered literary murder mystery and a love story,
its setting ranging from the coal-scented fogs of late-Regency London to the
stark winter landscapes of Gloucestershire. And at its heart is the boy who
does not really belong anywhere, an actor who never learns the significance
of his part.
Reviews
"Familiar conventions get a fresh coat of paint in
this historical novel full of pithy observations that offer a nod to Jane
Austen and colorful characters straight out of Dickens. Taylor constructs an
entertaining, sometimes enchanting, world." --People magazine
"A timeless story about arrogance, obsession and
justification." --Houston Chronicle
"A wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully
written, an enthralling read from start to finish." --The London Times
"Taylor knits his considerable skills as a crime writer and as a master of
historical detail into a smooth, agreeably complex solution of two mysteries
in the life of the real-life Poe." --Kirkus
"This novel has a plot so devious that I found myself believing it was true
. . . [It] can be compared to An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain
Pears, but it's better." --Toronto Globe & Mail
"Magnificent . . . the perfect book to read under the blanket on the sofa
while the days are short." --Daily Telegraph
"Like Hitchcock, Taylor pitches extreme and gothic
events within a hair's breadth of normality." --Times Literary Supplement
"The most underrated crime writer in Britain
today." --Val McDermid
"Taylor is a major thriller talent." --Time Out
London
"Taylor is a highly entertaining, crisp and clean
writer, particularly skilled in the art of the melodramatic plot twist." --Publishers
Weekly
"One of Britain's best writers of psychological
suspense." --The Times (of London)
"The most interesting novelist writing on crime in
England today." --Harriet Waugh, The Spectator
An Unpardonable Crime