Jonah Peabody (the author’s unreliable alter ego) takes a job as caretaker and head docent for a historical house in The Bronx that once served as the last home for Edgar Allan Poe, a job that requires him to live on the premises so he can give tours on the weekend. To be more precise, he must live in the basement of Poe’s home—Poe’s Basement—much like the author did himself, many and many a year ago.

The author truly did work at Poe’s house for 5 years, and so he’d like you to believe he’s an expert on all things Edgar, but he’s as unreliable as his unbalanced anti-hero, and since this is a novel and not a memoir, it is, in all honesty, a pack of stinking lies. However, it’s also wild, funny, irreverent, terrifying, and soaked in melancholy, a tale of family darkness, sickness, revenge, and weird museums of unholy treasures.

Author bio: Matthew Mercier is a writer and storyteller lucky enough to be living with his wife on a wild patch of forest and wetlands in upstate New York. He’s worked as a tour guide at an aquarium, run a youth hostel in Albuquerque, been slimed as a salmon packer in Naknek, Alaska, provided showers for homeless men on the Bowery, and proudly served five years as head docent and caretaker for the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in The Bronx. His work has appeared in Rosebud Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, The Fairy Tale Review, Shotgun Honey and Mystery Tribune. He’s performed stories live on stage with The Moth and has been heard on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour. He was awarded the Leon B. Burstein scholarship for Mystery Writing from the New York chapter of Mystery Writers of America in order to complete his first novel, Poe & I, which he’s now thrilled has found a home at Crystal Lake Publishing.

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