On Night’s Shore by Randall Silvis is a fictional account of real events.

Much like Edgar Allen Poe, Randall Silvis has a way with words. Whether this is a good or bad thing is completely up to the reader. The writing felt like Silvis had sat down with a dictionary picking as many large words as possible. It was more than a little disconcerting especially when one considers that the narrator is a street urchin.

Once one has become more comfortable with Mr. Silvis’ writing style, then it is easy to enjoy the story itself. It is easy to become drawn into the narrative and to follow along as Poe gathers information. And much like the detective C. Auguste Dupin, Poe’s genius is evident as he pieces the clues together.

This is the first book I have read by Randall Silvis. As a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, finding a novel with the famed author as the main character was a treat. I enjoy a good murder mystery and was hoping to enjoy this particular story.

It pleases me to say that I enjoyed reading On Night’s Shore very much. And it is one that I would recommend to my readers.

This was a very well-written mystery, set in the 1840's with Edgar Allan Poe as a main character. I liked it enough that I ordered the next in the series right away. Not for anyone that has trouble figuring out what an unusual word means by the context. I have never seen so many words in one book that I had never seen before! LOL

While I liked the plot well enough, and it is interesting to imagine some mystery solving, adventurous Poe righting the wrongs of the world, I found at times the author to be a bit too verbose for my liking. What could have been an exciting can't-put-down read instead was something that inspired an on-again-off-again reading