Published in 2007 to incredibly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, author Louis Bayard's novel The Pale Blue Eye is set sometime in the 1830s at West Point Academy. On one cold and windy October day, a young cadet's body is found swinging at a building in the academy - dead from an apparent suicide. Upset and perplexed, West Point hires a retired former New York City police detective named Gus Landor to investigate the murder.
Very shortly after his arrival, Landor discovers that there is more going on with the situation than he had initially thought. In fact, more people are being murdered in the same fashion. Landor eventually enlists the help of a cadet (and esteemed real-life author) Edgar Allen Poe to help solve the murders. Landor and Poe become fast friends, but their relationship isn't sustainable. Poe, for instance, has substance issues; Landor has demons of his own that he must contend with the move forward. Regardless, the two work together to solve what happened to the cadets.
Director Scott Cooper will helm an adaption on film of the novel for Netflix. The film is set to release on sometime in 2022, with a limited theatrical run shortly after so that the film will be eligible for the Academy Awards. It will star Christian Bale as Landor and Harry Melling as Poe.
