Edgar Allan Poe

“Most people would agree that it’s the first actual detective story. There are other stories about crime beforehand, there are even one or two locked room mysteries, but this is the first great detective story. The detective is called Auguste Dupin and it’s set in Paris. Dupin is the archetypal great detective, the brilliant reasoning machine with an admiring unnamed friend who’s the narrator of his exploits. There are two women murdered. One of them is found in a room that’s locked and shuttered and there’s no way in and no way out. You can’t get through the ceiling; you can’t get through the floor. How did it happen? That’s the central puzzle. The police are baffled by the murders, but by applying his brand of logic, Dupin solves the mystery to everybody’s amazement. I won’t say what the solution is but it’s a pretty remarkable one, that’s for sure.” Read more...

The Best Golden Age Mysteries

Martin Edwards, Literary Scholar

“It’s a beautifully made book—well-bound with lovely paper. The editorial choices are smart. And in one volume you get most of what Poe wrote: all the poetry, all the stories, his sole novel (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym) and much of his criticism and essays. Which is great, because readers can dip in wherever they like, and watch as Poe takes an idea and works it through different genres, shifting from, say, gothic romance to satire to speculative fiction. The book captures the restlessness of his invention.” Read more...

The Best Edgar Allan Poe Books

Shawn Rosenheim, Literary Scholar

“I first came across it when I was nine years old. I still remember this cartoon which had the raven in it. It really affected me because the raven was so sinister and nasty. It really scared me. It was so close to things to do with death and the supernatural. What I was looking at was a cartoon version of Poe’s The Raven. I was so taken by the story I asked my mother to track down the original for me.” Read more...

The best books on Swedish Crime Writing

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“Poe was a really interesting writer in that he managed to affect a kind of carelessness. There was a sort of feeling of dementia and frothing insanity and a stream of consciousness. But, actually, I think his works are extraordinarily well thought through, because he was a poet as well. He could think of things with really elaborate metres and internal rhymes.” Read more...

The best books on Horror

Kim Newman, Novelist