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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Having a murder mystery set in a real historical setting and trying to remain faithful to the real people's characters whilst writing a fiction novel is quite a challenge, but expertly achieved here. It's a slow burn so you have to commit in first third knowing it gets quicker paced later on. A solid mystery, very interesting characters, sub plots all coming together neatly at the end tying up all lose ends nicely. A unique book which I'd recommend.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It wasn’t catching my interest and my TBR is too big to waste my time on a dull start. I’ll try it again at another time
I'm a big Dante fan, so I particularly liked the way the classic author was tied into a more modern (in writing if not in setting) mystery.
Read my review of The Dante Club. I loaned this book to a student and never got it back. NEVER lend your books to anyone.
I loved the premise of this book. A few murders take place in Boston shortly after the Civil War. These murders are replicas of scenes from Dante's Inferno. Longfellow is just in the process of translating Dante's work into English. There are a group of men who aid him in this endeavor -- Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell, thus we have "The Dante Club". When these men hear of the circumstances of the murders they recognize them right away and knowing that there are very few people who know about Dante, they set out to solve the crimes.
Warning - descriptions of the murder scenes are very graphic and are reviewed throughout the book.
Warning - descriptions of the murder scenes are very graphic and are reviewed throughout the book.
If you like Dante and are interested in Longfellow, you can probably make it through this book, but you also probably don't want to. Props for a fun idea, but the execution is poor
Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club was awesome. He gave us a great mystery surrounded by and fueled by none other than Poets! It was captivating read set in Boston right after the Civil War. Pearl shows us the racial prejudice that existed even in the Union but also gives us a glimpse into an even more mysterious world…that of a poet! It gave me even a desire to read Dante's Divine Comedy…Longfellow's translation of course!
Dis not enjoy - the plot was slow, there were too many characters to keep track off and I just couldn't get into it.