On the eve of his departure, Isaac gets together with his best friend Billy Poe, a former high-school football star who has also failed to heed the edict that at 18 you should flee the rust belt altogether.

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But for all his showbiz credentials, Mr Poe has run a lacklustre campaign.

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Unlike Mr Estrada, who served as a mayor, senator and vice-president before his presidential bid, Mr Poe, a high-school drop-out, had never run for office before.

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Mr Ackroyd insists repeatedly that Poe sought women who resembled his dying mother.

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"The district attorney has said they operate in his portion of the state of Texas, " Poe told CNN.

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His younger daughter Mary wed her longtime partner Heather Poe in June.

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Clavaud's microscope illuminated what Redon called the "intermediary life between animal and plant, " and his bookshelf introduced the artist to Gustave Flaubert and Edgar Allan Poe.

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An alternative ending to this wishful-thinking, Edgar Allan Poe-esque scenario has Jimbo leaving the planet entirely, overcoming his xenophobia to allow himself to be rescued by space aliens.

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Poe's stints at various journals usually ended badly, due to his drunken binges.

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The title comes from an 1844 Edgar Allan Poe story oddly enough, a comic satire rather than one of his macabre mysteries.

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His latest book is called, Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery and it was recently awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award for mystery writing in the young adult category.

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