It's been several years since I read THE DANTE CLUB, but I still remember how engrossed I was with the book, even though the details of the book is a bit hazy. Nevertheless, reading THE DANTE CHAMBER brought some memories back of what happened in THE DANTE CLUB.
THE DANTE CHAMBER is a stand- alone sequel to THE DANTE CLUB. You don't have to read the first book to understand the story in this book, though you might be interested in reading the first book. I know I'm tempted now to reread THE DANTE CLUB.
It's been five years since the events in THE DANTE CLUB, when several Dante-inspired murders happened in Boston. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was involved in catching the killer and is now on tour in Europe when he gets a message from Robert Browning. There seems to be a killer loose in England who is also copying Dante, this time in styles of punishments from Purgatory, the second part of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Robert Browning, together with Christina Rossetti, and Alfred Tennyson are looking for Christina's brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who has disappeared. Could the missing Dante have something to do with the killings? Could he be an intended victim?
You need patience when you read this book, it's a slow-moving book, well-written, and very atmospheric. There were moments I felt that I wanted the story to move a bit faster, particularly towards the middle of the book, when I felt that everything was up in the air and I wanted to get some answers to what was going on. I loved that Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Alfred Tennyson worked together with Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to find Dante. The best part of the book is towards the end when you realize the whole truth. Nothing is how it seemed, and you have been blindsided!
I did like THE DANTE CLUB a bit better than I liked THE DANTE CHAMBER. However, it's a good historical mystery, and I recommend reading this one if you like reading about real authors solving crimes.
From Mathew Pearl, the bestselling author of The Dante
Club, a masterful tale of literature, obsession, and
murderThe year is 1870. Five years after a
series of Dante-inspired killings disrupted Boston, a man is
found murdered in the public gardens of London with an
enormous stone around his neck etched with a verse from the
Divine Comedy. When more mysterious murders erupt
across the city, all in the style of the punishments Dante
memorialized in Purgatory, poet Christina Rossetti
fears her brother, the Dante-obsessed artist and writer
Gabriel Rossetti, will be the next victim.Christina
enlists poets Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson, and
famous scholar Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, to assist in
deciphering the literary clues. Together these unlikely
investigators rush to unravel the secrets of Dante\'s verses
in order to find Gabriel and stop the killings. Racing
between the shimmering mansions of the elite and the dark
corners of London\'s underworld, they descend further and
further into the mystery. But when the true inspiration
behind the gruesome murders is finally revealed, Christina
realizes that the perpetrator has even bigger and more
horrific plans than she had initially thought.A
dazzling tale of intrigue from the writer Library
Journal calls \"the reigning king of popular literary
historical thrillers,\" The Dante Chamber is a
riveting adventure across London and through Dante. Expertly
blending fact and fiction, Pearl gives us a historical
mystery like no other, captivating and enthralling until the
last page.
No excerpt available.
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