Boston. 1865. A series of gruesome murders have been taking place throughout the town, finding some of Boston's most important men to be the victims. Nobody can seem to find a link between the murders, aside from the fact that each victim had their clothes removed and neatly folded and placed aside. Enter the Dante Club, featuring the brilliant minds of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Lowell, Wendell Holmes, and T.J. Fields. Only they have found the true connection between all of the murders: each one depicts a punishment described in Dante's Inferno, the very poem they were at that moment working to translate into English. Harvard, and particularly Augustus Manning, have been trying to halt the groups progress with the translation, fearing that this gruesome and foreign work will destroy the American culture. The police department are also working on the case, but with no progress. The Dante Club must unravel the mystery without anyone discovering the truth of these murders: or else they--well-known Dante scholars--would be the prime suspects.
This witty mystery novel is a real page-turner that will keep the reader wondering up the end. The use of poets as the main characters was truly a wonderful choice on the author's part, as it adds a sense of artistic humor and poetic lines that few books possess. Indeed, the reader is much like Dante with the author his Virgil, his guide. If we read through the hellish descriptions of contrapasso and through the inferno, we will reach a paradiso of literature. I highly suggest this New York Times Bestseller to everyone, especially those looking for an educated, thrilling mystery.
