Maya Corrigan
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
    • By Cook or by Crook
    • Scam Chowder
    • Final Fondue
    • The Tell-Tale Tarte
    • Stories, etc.
  • Trivia
    • Sleuthing Sweethearts
    • Christie Weapons
    • Train Mysteries
    • Poe and His Stories
  • Mystery 101
    • Mystery History Topics
    • Detective Story Origins
    • Mystery Fashions
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Poe and Lincoln
    • Holmes and Dracula
    • Christie's Clues
  • Extras
    • Book Club Topics
    • Five-Ingredient Recipes
    • Story: Delicious Death
  • News/Contact
  • SmorgasBlog
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
    • By Cook or by Crook
    • Scam Chowder
    • Final Fondue
    • The Tell-Tale Tarte
    • Stories, etc.
  • Trivia
    • Sleuthing Sweethearts
    • Christie Weapons
    • Train Mysteries
    • Poe and His Stories
  • Mystery 101
    • Mystery History Topics
    • Detective Story Origins
    • Mystery Fashions
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Poe and Lincoln
    • Holmes and Dracula
    • Christie's Clues
  • Extras
    • Book Club Topics
    • Five-Ingredient Recipes
    • Story: Delicious Death
  • News/Contact
  • SmorgasBlog

THE TELL-TALE TARTE: A Five-Ingredient Mystery


A long dead author's spirit hovers over the people caught up in a recent murder.
The title of the fourth book in the Five-Ingredient Mystery series derives from Edgar Allan Poe's story about a murder, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The victim and suspects in The Tell-Tale Tarte are all inspired by Poe: an actor famed for his one-man Poe show, an author who riffs on Poe stories, a professor who specializes in Poe, and an aspiring writer and Poe lookalike.  

When café manager Val Deniston serves a tarte Tatin at a book club dinner, the dessert reveals a fraud, embroiling her and her grandfather in the investigation of a murder. The search for the killer takes Val and Granddad to the home of a bestselling author, Rick Usher. Stranded there by an ice storm, they spend a harrowing night in the “House of Usher.” Then, in the shadow of Poe’s tomb, they try to prevent another murder and mete out some POE-etic justice. 

​As a Poe fan, I thoroughly enjoyed incorporating his writing and incidents from his life into the plot of a current-day mystery.  Hailed today as a pioneer of detective stories, horror, and psychological suspense, Poe struggled throughout his life to earn a living from his writing and fend off starvation. Ironically, his first book, “Tamerlane and Other Poems By A Bostonian,” has become the Holy Grail of American book collecting, the most expensive book by an American author ever sold at auction. There are only a dozen known copies of it, and one of them figures in the plot of The Tell-Tale Tarte. 

Themes that Poe explored in his writing emerge in The Tell-Tale Tarte: guilt, vengeance, and even burial alive. The book offers a solution to real real-life mystery–the identity of the elusive Poe toaster, who, annually for decades, left roses and cognac at Poe’s grave on his birthday.

Vertical Divider
Cover of Final Fondue with a fondue pot and ingredients: bars of chocolate, a banana, and a strawberry coated with melted chocolate
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0917-2
Order from Kensington Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BAM, Hudson Booksellers, or Indie Bound.

See Also

Poe and the Detective Story
Poe and Abraham Lincoln
Poe and Jane Austen
Poe Trivia​

    Contact Me

Submit
© 2018 Mary Ann Corrigan
​Legal Fine Print: Unless otherwise noted, I have purchased the rights to images on this site, the owner has granted free use of them, or they are in the public domain, the United States copyright having expired.
✕