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The American Boy

By Andrew Taylor

Interweaving real and fictional elements‚ The American Boy is a major new literary historical crime novel in the tradition of An Instance of the Fingerpost and Possession.

England 1819: Thomas Shield‚ a new master at a school just outside London‚ is tutor to a young American boy and the boy′s sensitive best friend‚ Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant′s beautiful‚ unhappy mother‚ Thomas becomes caught up in her family′s twisted intrigues.

Then a brutal crime is committed‚ with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts‚ Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex‚ money‚ murder and lies − a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child‚ at the heart of these macabre events − what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?

entertaining. Its beguiling story and atmospheric evocation of Regency London and the winter landscapes of Gloucestershire cry out for a wingback chair by a blazing fire. − Observer Books of the Year

̡dness‚ murder‚ misapplied money and macabre marriages are interspersed with coffins‚ corpses and cancelled codicilsan enjoyable and well−constructed puzzle. − Sunday Times

²eates an atmosphere close to Sarah Waters′ Fingersmith in the convincing depiction of a sadistic underworld. − Independent

ISBN: 9780007109609; ISBN10: 0007109601; Imprint: ; On Sale: 25/08/2004; Format: Paperback; Trimsize: 190 x 127 x 32 mm; Pages: 400; $24.99;

	The American Boy England 1819: Thomas Shield‚ a new master at a school just outside London‚ is tutor to a young American boy and the boy′s sensitive best friend‚ Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant′s beautiful‚ unhappy mother‚ Thomas becomes caught up in her family′s...
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