Lost Poe Papers and Other Stories

Never-before published poems and short stories by Edgar Allan Poe have been discovered in an old trunk in someone's attic. After hearing only one of the poems, the public is delighted and can't wait for the collection to be published in a hardcover edition. But there is no collection--only the one poem written in Poe's style. Even when the impersonator confesses to the hoax, no one will believe him. "Blasphemy!" he is told. "How dare you put your name on Poe's work!" The Poe impersonator retorts, "Why, if I put my name on Stephen King's work, everyone would say it was the best thing King ever wrote." And soon an even grander hoax is planned, involving short stories written in different genres, supposedly by famous authors. His friend boldly pens a play as Neil Simon and, before long, everyone wants to impersonate Stephen King. It's all fun and games, until the two friends attract the attention of a serial killer on the eve of their triumph and he pursues them through the night fog. The plot thickens when the fabulous Poe impersonator inherits a baronial estate, complete with medieval village and a ghostly past, secret passages, an axe murderer, a gypsy troupe, witches, and more than one would-be werewolf. But the scariest thing is the tax collector, forcing our hero to turn the estate into a B&B and the village into a tourist trap. (A story within a story, within a story, within a story.)Barton, Louise Ann is the author of 'Lost Poe Papers and Other Stories', published 2008 under ISBN 9780972240208 and ISBN 0972240209.