On one cool and windy October day, a young cadet is found swinging from a pillar at West Point Academy in New York, dead from an apparent suicide. But the cadet's death is not what it initially seemed to be. In fact, the cadet - and many other cadets like them - have been murdered by the same killer. Because of this, West Point enlists the help of an esteemed but retired former New York City police detective named Gus Landor. Landor accepts the job and quickly arrives at West Point, where he meets all the cadets. He is most interested in a young cadet named Edgar Allen Poe, a young aspiring poet who has a drinking problem.
By including a real-life character in his novel, Bayard not only grounds the book in history but also evokes a sense of horror and dread in the reader. After all, the well-known and beloved Edgar Allen Poe's life is on the line. And for Bayard, the inclusion of historical characters in his novel is nothing new. Some of his most famous novels include Jackie and Me (2022), which tells the story of Jackie Kennedy, and The Black Tower (2008), which follows the key figures of the French Revolution.
In The Pale Blue Eye, as Poe and Landor begin to build a better relationship with each other, their past demons start to become revealed - especially Landor's, whose past hinders his ability to succeed in the world. The same is true for Poe, whose drinking hinders his ability to write meaningful poetry and his ability to investigate the case. Still, the two persevere and find out who has been killing all of the cadets. And when they discover the answer they've been looking for, they are incredibly surprised.
After researching the time period, the process and job of a detective did not yet exist. Reasoning and deducing through a crime, however, did exist and was a relatively new phenomenon. To that end, Bayard did quite a bit of research to achieve authenticity for the novel. He researched and read Poe's work, researched the time period, and researched the experiences of those at West Point in the early and mid-1800s (where the novel is set).
