Louis Bayard - Azok a light blue eyes

In late October 1830, Cadet Leroy Fry is found hanged in the closed grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point on the Hudson. Suicide is ruled out, as the victim was brutally humiliated: his heart was ripped out of his chest. In order to preserve the good reputation of the academy - and in general: to survive - the head of the facility asks Augustus Landor, a former New York police detective who is enjoying his retirement years in the nearby town of Buttermilk Falls, to investigate the case and catch the culprit or culprits. However, it is not easy for the law enforcement officer who recently lost his wife and daughter at the military base, which operates according to strict rules. But there is a self-proclaimed helper with a lot of self-confidence - and an unusual skull - who is eloquent and at the same time quite talkative: in the person of first-year cadet Edgar Allan Poe.

In Bayard's historical crime novel, the 19th century is brilliantly brought to life. America of the first third of the 20th century and its historically accurately depicted military academic milieu - as well as the early stage of the tumultuous career of "the father of detective stories", as well as his romantic-mystical poetry and narrative prose. The creepy crime novel is a fascinating read in itself, but it serves as a real treat for connoisseurs, admirers and fans of Poe's work.