On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. It was soon discovered to be the lovely Mary Rogers, a 28-year-old cigar salesgirl who had gone missing three days earlier. New York City¿s disjointed police force proved unable to mount an effective investigation, and the crime remained unsolved. A year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case. Poe sent his famous detective, C. August Dupin, on the case of a lifetime to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in ¿The Mystery of Marie Roget.¿ This book deftly captures the drama and mystery of New York in the mid-19th century, illuminating the spellbinding crime that transformed a city. Illustrations.