Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Readalikes
With his most recent novels, The School of Night, The Black Tower, The Pale Blue Eye, and Mr. Timothy, Louis Bayard, in the words of the Washington Post, has ascended to "the upper reaches of the historical-thriller league." A New York Times Notable author, he has been nominated for both the Edgar and Dagger awards and has been named one of People magazine's top authors of the year.
Bayard is also a nationally recognized essayist and critic whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post. His other novels include Fool's Errand and Endangered Species. He is a contributor to the anthologies The Worst Noël and Maybe Baby (HarperCollins) as well as 101 Damnations (St. Martin's). He also teaches creative writing at George Washington University.
About This Biography
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The Good Guesser
An essay by Louis Bayard about The Black Tower, an historical mystery set
in the early 19th century
Five years ago, I'm embarrassed to say,
I didn't know who Eugène François Vidocq
was. It took Edgar Allan Poe to bring us
together.
In the course of researching The Pale
Blue Eye, I reread Poe's "The Murders in
the Rue Morgue," which is widely regarded
as the world's first detective story. But is it?
Turns out that Poe's great sleuth, Dupin, in
the course of describing his methodology,
makes a glancing—and slighting—
reference to a gentleman named Vidocq,
whom he immediately dismisses as "a good
guesser" lacking "educated thought" and
constantly erring "by the very intensity
of his investigations."
Two things struck me right off. First, Dupin considered it important to get
a leg up on his predecessor (much as
Sherlock Holmes would feel compelled
to do with Dupin). And second, this
particular predecessor needed no
introduction to the general reader.
In fact, by 1841, when Poe's story was
published, Vidocq was a household name
on both sides of the Atlantic, a figure who
could be cited by Dickens and Melville
without ...
Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in the Republic of Georgia in 1956. A philologist, critic, essayist, and translator of Japanese, Akunin published his first detective stories in 1998 and ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Black Tower
Try:
The Winter Queen
by Boris Akunin
Peter Carey was born in 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His parents, who had a General Motors dealership, sent him to Geelong Grammar School, one of the leading private schools, "where the ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Black Tower
Try:
Parrot and Olivier in America
by Peter Carey
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