'Dante Club' Weaves Fiery Web of Mystery

 Jessica Safavimehr, staff writer

The “Dante Club” written by Matthew Pearl takes the work of Dante’s Divine Comedy and turns it into a murder mystery.

Written by Matthew Pearl,The story begins in the home of a recent murder victim, the scene looking like something out of a horror flick. This New York Times best-seller has captivated audiences with its clever use of literary imagination and mystery.

Set in Boston in the 1860’s, the “Dante Club” gathers a group of poetic and literary masters wanting to give the United States a look into the work of Dante. The Dante Club forms out of Harvard College against the wishes of the college. The board members of Harvard College, are afraid of the aftermath of the knowledge of Dante and his corrupting, foreign, irrational ideas. All the while, this group, the Dante Club, is forming a series of strange murders and reeking havoc on the naïve city of Boston.

These murders are closely related to the Dante Club in that, each murder reflects a level of hell presented in the Divine Comedy.  While these murders baffle the police, only the Dante Club members realize these astonishing facts.

A rookie police officer begins to discover the close connection and reveals the Dante Club and their knowledge of the crimes. With even more lives endangered, the Dante Club begins working with the police department to uncover these mysterious murders and soon find a mystery closer to home than the club could’ve ever imagined.

The men of the Dante Club are well-educated scholars with connections to Harvard and find themselves unraveling a murder mystery. These men go on sort of a clue chase with each murder as they reveal the relation of each murder to a level of Hell in “The Inferno”. At the time of the murders, there are only a handful of people who have read the “Divine Comedy”, the Dante Club included. Therefore, they fear being murder suspects. In order to flee these suspicions, they feel they must first find the murderous avenger.

This novel is a delectable piece of  literary genius. It is very obvious that Pearl has become knowledgeable about the world of Dante and every piece of the “Divine Comedy.” Matthew Pearl takes an intriguing look into the world of Dante and the “Divine Comedy”.

This book is recommended for any fan of an intense murder mystery with twists and turns that will entrance even the most distracted reader.