Any book that involves Poe, a murder mystery and anything else has me hooked. Highly recommend this book and series for collections with robust YA collections. Unfortunately, my current library does not have such a collection at this time.

From the bloody opening (a corpse has been flayed) this book was a cornucopeia of cliches, and there was much too much unnecessary sado-porn. Evidently, a first book isn't easy to write, but this one needed a manuscript editor to deal with the over-complicated plot. Not much to say about the characters, either, except that the fantasy about the brain tumour is over the top: no detective would get away with coming back to work when the consequences of the tumour and the operation to remove it are so obvious. He ought to be medically retired.

Poorly researched and all over the place yet held my interest long enough so that I could finish it. I'll likely skip anything else from this author in the future.