The American Boy

Description

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?

Andrew Taylor is the award-winning author of a number of crime novels, including the Dougal series, the Lydmouth books and The Barred Window. He and his wife live with their children in the Forest of Dean.

Praise for The American Boy: 'In the end, the myriad mysteries of The American Boy are all neatly accounted for, as one would expect from a thriller writer such as Taylor. But he has transcended any limitations of genre in this novel, for it is a wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully written, an enthralling read from start to finish' The Times 'Creates an atmosphere close to Sarah Waters' Fingersmith in the convincing depiction of a sadistic underworld. Taylor's deeply absorbing and beautifully written book is a fitting tribute to the founding father of crime fiction' Independent 'A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill, and it will have you desperate to search out a quiet corner to continue your acquaintance with it' Daily Telegraph 'Taylor spins a magnificent tangential web... The book is full of sharply-etched details evoking Dickensian London and is also a love story, shot through with the pain of a penniless and despised lover. This novel has the literary values which should take it to the top of the lists' Scotland on Sunday' 'It is as if Taylor has used the great master of the bizarre as both starting- and finishing- point, but in between created a period piece with its own unique voice.The result should satisfy those drawn to the fictions of the 19th century, or Poe, or indeed to crime writing at its most creative' Spectator Praise for The American Boy: Long, sumptuous, near-edible account of Regency rogues -- wicked bankers, City swindlers, crooked pedagogues and ladies on the make -- all joined in the pursuit of the rich, full, sometimes shady life. A plot stuffed with incident and character, with period details impeccably rendered' Literary Review 'An enticing work of fiction...Taylor takes account of both a Georgian formality and a pre-Victorian laxity in social and sexual matters; he is adept at historical recreation, and allows a heady decor to work in his favour by having his mysteries come wrapped around by a creepy London fog or embedded picturesquely in a Gloucestershire snowdrift' Times Literary Supplement 'Madness, murder, misapplied money and macabre marriages are interspersed with coffins,corpses and cancelled codicils... an enjoyable and well-constructed puzzle' Sunday Times 'Andrew Taylor has flawlessly created the atmosphere of late regency London in The American Boy, with a cast of sharply observed characters in this dark tale of murder and embezzlement' Sunday Telegraph