On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. The victim was Mary Rogers, a captivating twenty-year-old cigar salesgirl, who would inspire not just one of the great authors of a generation to write The Mystery of Marie Roget but also the inception of a whole style of literature - the crime novel. This book carefully retraces the Poe's steps as he sets out to investigate this crime and its famous re-creation with Detective Dupin in The Mystery of Marie Roget. Stashower's tour takes the reader through the New York of the 1840s, providing a tale of intrigue, suspense and satisfaction that the great writer himself would have been proud to pen.