Disquiet Heart: A Thriller - Hardcover

Silvis, Randall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312262485 ISBN 13: 9780312262488

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2002

Synopsis

After the death of his beloved wife, a devastated Poe decides that a change of scenery is in order. He has been invited to Pittsburgh by a wealthy benefactor, Dr. Alfred Brunrichter, a man of intriguing contradiction who on the one hand was fascinated by subjects so macabre that even Poe did not wish to consider, while on the other hand was solicitous of Poe's comfort in every regard and was a local philanthropist and patron of the arts. Augie Dubbins, now a young man in search of adventure, joins Poe in order to keep an eye on his increasingly maudlin friend.

After an exhausting journey across the length of Pennsylvania, their first glimpse of Pittsburgh is not a heartening one. The city, a tight triangle of enterprise squeezed between the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, is gray with factory smoke; its riverbanks clogged with barges, streamboats and freighters, choked with log rafts from the denuded forests farther north. It is at every turn a working-class city, gritty and rough. Moreover, the air of Pittsburgh reeks of death - a cholera epidemic has recently swept through the city, killing hundreds - and Poe and Augie soon learn the real reason behind the city's malaise.

Several young females, all attractive women in their late teens, have disappeared over the past six months. All are of the merchant class - not among the cultural elite but not outright prostitutes either. With Poe almost incapacitated by the lavish attention of their host, Augie finds himself exploring Pittsburgh on his own and begins to investigate the killings.

With great attention to period detail and utilizing all of his skill as a seasoned novelist, Randall Silvis once again crafts a wonderful historical thriller that will leave you gripping the edge of your seats.

About this title

About the Author:

RANDALL SILVIS is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. He is the winner of the 1984 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, as well as numerous other literary awards, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their two sons.

From Publishers Weekly:

Atmospheric and cleverly researched, this shaky sequel to Silvis's well-received On Night's Shore (2001), which introduced precocious street urchin Augie Dubbins and his mystery-solving sidekick, Edgar A. Poe, takes time to build up a head of steam, in large part because the narrator, at age 17 and no longer an engaging waif, dwells too long on his career shift from farmhand to budding journalist. In early 1847, Poe and Augie find themselves the guests of Dr. Alfred Brunrichter, a Poe admirer who has lured the celebrated author to Pittsburgh, Pa., with promises of a remunerative speaking tour. In the event, the good doctor keeps Poe so drugged, or sloshed with claret, that he stumbles through his various readings and lectures. Envious of all the attention lavished on Poe, Augie attempts to establish his own writing career while courting a young teacher's assistant. Poe, whose dear consumptive child-wife has recently gone to her grave, jerks awake for brief marionette cameos that are just intriguing enough to make one wish he were telling the story rather than Augie, whose Victorian posturings on life slow the story to a snail's pace. (Reprints of two of Augie's articles drag the proceedings further.) When Poe finally assumes center stage after Augie becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, the plot picks up and races to a sparkling denouement. Poe's haunting ghost, alas, is not enough to rescue a basically flat, overwrought narrative that invokes some of the mystery of Poe's stories but none of their majesty.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312262485
• ISBN 13: 9780312262488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336