On the 7th October 1849 Edgar Allan Poe died mysteriously. He was found a few days earlier on the streets of Baltimore, delirious, and 'in great distress.. in need of immediate assistance', according to the man who found him. He was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own.

Nobody knows what happened to him as all medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost. Was it alcoholism, delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis or cholera ? All have been suggested, but we will never know.

His death left a mystery worthy of the brilliant detective C. Auguste Dupin, the creation of Poe who is often regarded as the first detective novelist. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the greatest detective in fiction, Sherlock Holmes, once remarked 'Where was the detective story before Poe breathed life into it ?'

Read by Bill Nighy, the founder reader and Silksoundbooks ambassador, The Dupin Mysteries comprise three tales that show the great detective at work. Bill adds his own inimitable suspense and tension to these detective mysteries, available for download as an unabridged audio book only from Silksoundbooks.