Reviewed by Ambrea
The Dante Club by Matthew
Pearl opens in Boston at the close of the Civil War in 1865. With the country trying to piece itself
together again, Boston is coming to terms with the return of soldiers, wounded
and damaged by a horrific war, and a brand new political landscape—and then the
murders begin. Modeled after the
horrible, grotesque tortures of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, these murders shock Boston society and send the Dante Club—a
group of like-minded men who seek to translate and publish Dante’s work—scrambling
to pick up the pieces and stop a killer before it’s too late.
I
was hooked by the premise of The Dante
Club: a crazed killer haunting the
streets of Boston, a group of literary men (including poet Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow) piecing together a gruesome puzzle, a marginalized detective with a
knack for mysteries, and a police force wracked with corruption. It’s a darkly compelling book that combines
literature, history, mystery, drama and suspense.
Although
Pearl weaves a beguiling story and recruits fascinating literary characters, I
have to say I liked his character Nicholas Rey the best. As the primary detective in the novel, Rey
was critical to the story. His side of
the investigation, which ran parallel to the events in the Dante Club, helps
piece together clues and shows an actual police investigation.
More
to the point, however, I liked Rey for the fact that he is a spectacular
detective despite the restriction of
his corrupt police department and the prejudices of his peers. He’s faced with a level of adversity that the
members of the Dante Club do not encounter, but he still manages to perform his
duties as an investigator. He is one of
the most driven, most competent and intelligent characters in Pearl’s novel—and,
by far, he’s my favorite.
As
a murder-mystery, The Dante Club is
intriguing and intense; however, I should point out that it’s a tale riddled
with blood and gore. Going into the
novel, I expected carnage. What I didn’t
expect was Pearl’s insight into the lives of soldiers who survived the Civil
War. I grasped the social and historical
context of the novel, but I didn’t realize the detail the author would put into
his work. Pearl takes a long hard look
at the soldiers who survived the war and sheds unexpected light on the horrors
that plagued the United States during such a tumultuous time—and provides a
level of precise detail that left me feeling emotionally drained.
In
short, The Dante Club is a decent
murder-mystery with interesting characters (an exceptional detective, I think)
and a terrifying serial killer that’s sure to give the reader chills.
