The Pale Blue Eye

**Now a major Netflix film starring Christian Bale and Gillian Anderson**

April 19th, 1831. In two or three hours I'll be dead.

So begins the chilling last testament of Gus Landor, a retired New York City police constable, whose numerous talents include code-breaking, riot control and the 'gloveless interrogation'. A young cadet has been found hanged at a military academy on the shores of the Hudson River. Before his body could be buried, however, it was stolen and his heart brutally carved out.

Fearing a scandal, the top brass at West Point have summoned Landor to help catch the culprit, and keep his discoveries away from prying eyes. As Landor embarks on a thrilling adventure to solve the case, he uncovers a series of dark secrets and finds unlikely assistance in the form of a mischievous young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe.

Full of drama and unexpected twists, The Pale Blue Eye is a brilliantly haunting and atmospheric historical mystery.

👁 'Brilliantly plotted and completely absorbing, ending with the kind of shock that few novelists are able to deliver' Sunday Times

👁 'Bayard's shockingly clever and devoutly unsentimental new mystery reads like a lost classic . . . Bayard reinvigorates historical fiction, rendering the 19th century as if he'd witnessed it firsthand' New York Times