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1830: A young cadet’s body is found swinging from a rope.
The Pale Blue Eye
What you need to know before your trail
At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet’s body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man’s heart.
Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It’s a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling.
The strange and haunted Southern poet, for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe.
Locations
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New York
The book brings to life the New York of the time but the film version was shot in Pennsylvania .
Westminster College (New Wilmington) stood in for the West Point Academy campus for example/
The Hudson highlands:
“I replied that to the contrary, it was my belief that the Highlands, to be apprehended in the full extent of their glory, must be seen immediately after the fall of the leaf, for neither Summer’s verdancy nor Winter’s rime can then conceal the minutest objects from the eye. Vegetation, I told her, does not improve, but rather obstructs, God’s originating design.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Pale Blue Eye
Destination/location: New York, Ithaca Author/guide: Louis Bayard Departure Time: 1830s
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