DANTE CHAMBER, by Matthew Pearl

Mystery/Thriller -- 2 stars




A politician has been murdered in a London park.  The method--his neck is broken using a large stone etched with a verse from Dante's Divine Comedy--is the first in a series of murders all inspired by the penances in Dante's work.  Christina Rossetti sets out to solve the murders while searching for her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Is he the perpetrator or a victim?  Mr. Pearl's first book based on the works of Dante, The Dante Club, used famous American writers to solve a mystery that was original and clever.  In this book, he has used many of the same ideas, but with a much heavier hand.  The name dropping is over the top and gratuitous. Mr. Pearl tosses  the names of famous authors out like Mardi Gras beads--shiny, but of no value.  Those who actually do spend time in the center of the story spend so much time analyzing Dante's seminal work that entire chapters read more like a dissertation than a novel.  I enjoyed the first Dante book.  This one was a slog.  There's a story in there somewhere, but you really have to search for it.