Barnum Mystery

Harold Schechter

When a young woman is brutally murdered in New York, the crime’s horrifying resemblance to a display in P. T. Barnum’s wax museum suggests that someone is turning sensational entertainment into reality. Edgar Allan Poe joins forces with the flamboyant showman to investigate a series of grisly killings rooted in the city’s fascination with spectacle, deception, and the macabre. Blending historical figures, atmospheric nineteenth-century Manhattan, and a darkly intricate mystery, the novel explores the uneasy boundary between theatrical illusion and genuine horror.