Poe Must Die

In Victorian London, the black magician and spiritualist Jonathan seeks out the Throne of Solomon which will grant him immortality and dominion over Lucifer, Asmodeus and all the demons of the upper air. His search leads him to New York, a city of slums and death.

Pursuing him is Pierce James Figg, a bare-knuckle fighter and teacher of sword and knife fighting, whose wife Jonathan has seduced and brutally murdered and who is responsible for the death of his son. Figg carries with him a letter of introduction from Charles Dickens to Edgar Allan Poe, the brilliant and tortured genius whose intellect and genius outrun his common sense.

Against the background of New York in the 1840s, a city of open sewers, Poe and Figg begin a perilous mission to find and destroy Jonathan before he can achieve his goal of controlling Lucifer and thereby change the destiny of the world.

If Figg wants to destroy Jonathan for having killed his wife, Poe must destroy the black magician in order to save Rachel Coltman, the woman he loves. For she has fallen into Jonathan’s hands and cannot be expected to survive for long.

Aided by Figg, Poe plays out a deadly game, fighting not only the demonic forces ranged against him but also his personal demons, the memory of his beloved dead wife and the cheap alcohol he consumes in order to forget her and blot out the critics who demean his incredible talent.