ria_mhrj 's review for:

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
2.0

A devilishly clever concept that never quite capitalises on its promise, The Dante Club was enjoyable but forgettable.

The decision to have the protagonists be four middle-aged academics with varying kinds of facial hair caused a few problems for me. The first 100 pages was a confusion of names, with very little to distinguish the leads from one another.

I was also disappointed with the execution and resolution of the mystery. A killer using the Inferno as inspiration for murder should have yielded more tension and horror, but there are ultimately only three deaths overall. When you find out whodunnit... well, I had my money on slightly more significant supporting characters.

Though not without merit, I was hoping for a little more drama and excitement from this book.