The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Genre: Adult Historical Mystery/Fiction
A novel set in the esteemed Harvard (or rather, Hahvahd) institution’s locale in the 19th century—kinda dry, right? A mystery hinged on a book club comprised of several bearded scholarly men—*yawn*, where is this even going?
Stuffy, erudite language and rhetoric aside, The Dante Club will dispel any notion of its being an utterly boring book. You want gore? You got it. In the form of chopped up corpses and writhing worms. You want a gripping mystery? Pearl serves it right up with plenty of wild geese chases and red herrings—bon appetit. You want a touch of actually well-researched and logical historical fiction (not the The Other Boleyn Girl stuff)? Yep, and you may actually learn quite a few new things about Dante’s Inferno or the poet Henry Longfellow or how to tell a regular maggot from a live-man-eating maggot. This book can surprise you if you let it.
Rating: Exceeded expectations
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