In 1830, retired cop Gus Landor receives a secret summons to West Point Military Academy. The superintendent Colonel Thayer has heard of Landor’s formidable reputation for investigative work, and wants him to solve a murder.

A cadet was found hanging from a tree on the academy grounds, an apparent suicide. The body was cut down and removed to a secluded room, but the next morning authorities found that someone had returned to mutilate the body, removing its heart!

This shocking act could not come at a worse time because Colonel Thayer has many political enemies closing in, looking for an excuse to persuade President Andrew Jackson to shut down the Point. Colonel Thayer and his right-hand man Captain Hitchcock receive Landor in a closed meeting in Thayer’s study and impress upon him the need for absolute secrecy.

Landor is a crusty misanthrope permanently warped by his preacher father’s harsh upbringing. He feels reluctant to take on such a difficult case. But a deep undercurrent of sorrow running through him pushes him towards thoughts of suicide; he needs a distraction. He agrees to take the job though he despises authority, and can see that Captain Hitchcock dislikes him already.

But Colonel Thayer needs answers. Landor decides he needs a secret informer, an inside man to help him navigate through the closed and hostile world of the academy. He ends up with an insecure but brilliant young cadet: a figure of fun to the others who mock his refined ways, a bad gambler, and the author of two volumes of poetry. This young man is Edgar Allan Poe! (Yes, he really did briefly attend West Point Military Academy).

Young Poe is thrilled beyond words to be approached for so dangerous an assignment. He takes to spying with manic enthusiasm, latching onto Landor as a much needed father-figure. Asked to take notes on his observations and leave reports at Landor’s hotel, Poe instead delivers florid missives: pages upon pages of poetic description, classical allusions, literary puns, French phrases – and yes, some relevant facts, as well. The poor boy is starved for a kindred spirit to understand him.

Landor is no fellow romantic, however. Though he and Poe are well-matched intellectually, he possesses the dry and cynical soul of a crooked cop. He uses Poe while regarding him with mingled amusement and exasperation. Together they find clues that indicate that the murder and mutilation of the dead cadet may have been done as a satanic ritual.

Soon Poe is risking his life, trying to get close to a shadowy group of creepy upperclassmen whom Landor thinks are the suspects. Then another murder happens! Again, the body is mutilated, and the satanic connection looks even stronger.

This is an outstanding novel that brings Edgar Allan Poe to life as an unforgettable character. I found first-person narrator Landor hard to like: at times he is terribly cruel to Poe. But by the end, everything comes clear about Landor’s tormented yet ultimately sympathetic character.

The period details of West Point Military Academy are crisp and vivid. This novel is one of the nominees for this year’s Edgar Allan Poe Award (how fitting!), and is available on Amazon through this link: The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel