Listeners unfamiliar with Pearl’s earlier work, THE DANTE CLUB, will easily follow his second installment, set four years later in London, 1870. Narrator Steve West’s measured cadence and deft characterizations infuse British literary luminaries Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and Robert Browning with depth and emotion as they race to find a missing Dante Gabriel Rossetti amid sinister events. Deaths predicated on Dante Alighieri’s vision of Purgatory pique famed Scotland Yard Inspector Adolphus “Dolly” Williamson’s interest as he also tracks Fenian Brotherhood operatives. A reluctant Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes also joins the fray, along with a familiar antagonist. West’s assured tone guides escalating events and intensifying emotions, though the narrative slows at times in the second half. An afterword provides insight into the era and characters. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The Dante Chamber
Narrated by Steve West
Matthew PearlUnabridged — 13 hours, 3 minutes
The Dante Chamber
Narrated by Steve West
Matthew PearlUnabridged — 13 hours, 3 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
Five years after a series of Dante-inspired killings stunned Boston, a politician is found in a London park with his neck crushed by an enormous stone device etched with a verse from the Divine Comedy. When other shocking deaths erupt across the city, all in the style of the penances Dante memorialized in Purgatory, poet Christina Rossetti fears her missing brother, the artist and writer Dante Gabriel Rossetti, will be the next victim.
The unwavering Christina enlists poets Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to decipher the literary clues, and together these unlikely investigators unravel the secrets of Dante's verses to find Gabriel and stop the killings. Racing between the shimmering mansions of the elite and the seedy corners of London's underworld, they descend further into the mystery. But when the true inspiration behind the gruesome murders is finally revealed, Christina must confront a more profound terror than anyone had imagined.
A dazzling tale of intrigue from the writer*Library Journal*calls “the reigning king of popular literary historical thrillers,”*The Dante Chamber*is a riveting journey across London and into both the beauty and darkness of Dante. Expertly blending fact and fiction, Pearl gives us a historical mystery like no other that captivates and surprises until the last page.
Editorial Reviews
06/11/2018
Pearl continues his successful run of intricate literary mysteries featuring famous literary works and real historical literary figures (The Dante Club, The Last Bookaneer) with this complex murder mystery set in London in 1870. Real-life 19th-century poet Christina Rossetti’s brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an expert on Dante’s Divine Comedy, is missing, and she is worried. After several gruesome murders occur, each with a chilling connection to the punishments detailed in the seven terraces of Dante’s Purgatory, she fears Gabriel will be the next victim. The police, meanwhile, think Gabriel is the killer. Christina teams up with fellow poets Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes to find Gabriel and solve the murders, not realizing that one of the famous poets is a police informant and Scotland Yard already knows more than it lets on. The poets are naive and unskilled detectives boldly challenging London’s criminal underworld and a diabolical mastermind. Their investigation leads to opium smuggling, bomb-throwing Irish Fenians, and a strange Dante-worshipping cult. Pearl is a brilliant storyteller, vividly portraying London’s literary arts scene and the city’s fear and fascination with the occult and a serial killer. Pearl’s fans, and fans of historical thrillers, are in for a treat. (June)
The sleuths who figure in Matthew Pearl’s THE DANTE CHAMBER should thrill English literature majors… [A] literary whodunit.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Murder takes a literary turn…You’ll enjoy Pearl’s evocation of these esteemed authors, who prove to be all too human.” —Washington Post
“[A] cunning follow-up to The Dante Club… Pearl twists the plot to the final page.” —BBC.com’s Ten Books to Read in June
“Pearl is a brilliant storyteller, vividly portraying London’s literary arts scene and the city’s fear and fascination with the occult and a serial killer. Pearl’s fans, and fans of historical thrillers, are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly
“Pearl demonstrates a scholar’s grasp of Dante in this darkly atmospheric novel.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Pearl’s clue-laden detective stories are also well-researched, atmospheric historical novels that succinctly mix fact and fiction. His novels illustrate the true art of historical mysteries, showing just how relevant the issues of another century are to modern times.” —The Sun-Sentinel
“This engrossing historical mystery populated with the literati of the 19th century is one to choose when you’re inclined to relish a sherry in a conservatory.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A clever literary mystery.” —Newsday
“THE DANTE CHAMBER has relocated the action across the pond in London, with a captivating circle of luminary poets…[A] wildly clever novel of suspense.” —The National Book Review
“[A] well-wrought sequel of sorts…Displaying extensive knowledge of the period and the writers, Pearl builds an intricate, well-layered plot…His focus on Christina among several imposing male writers…is also a refreshing choice and produces a complex, appealing character. A thoroughly entertaining excursion to the literary England of the late 19th century with some ink-stained amateur detectives.” — Kirkus, starred review
“Pearl uses his literary knowledge to excellent effect as he crafts a sinister tale of obsession and manipulation.” —Library Journal
"Pearl again does a stunning job of transforming Dante into brilliantly staged crime fiction." — Booklist
Listeners unfamiliar with Pearl’s earlier work, THE DANTE CLUB, will easily follow his second installment, set four years later in London, 1870. Narrator Steve West’s measured cadence and deft characterizations infuse British literary luminaries Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and Robert Browning with depth and emotion as they race to find a missing Dante Gabriel Rossetti amid sinister events. Deaths predicated on Dante Alighieri’s vision of Purgatory pique famed Scotland Yard Inspector Adolphus “Dolly” Williamson’s interest as he also tracks Fenian Brotherhood operatives. A reluctant Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes also joins the fray, along with a familiar antagonist. West’s assured tone guides escalating events and intensifying emotions, though the narrative slows at times in the second half. An afterword provides insight into the era and characters. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
★ 2018-03-20
This well-wrought sequel of sorts to The Dante Club (2002) shifts the action to England and another set of literary lights who seek to solve crimes tied to The Divine Comedy.In late 1869, around the time a British member of Parliament dies under the crushing weight of a large stone on which a Latin message is written, the poet Christina Rossetti has an "ominous foreboding" about her missing brother, the erratic artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She, Robert Browning, and William Rossetti (another brother) seek clues at Gabriel's London home, which he shares with a monkey, a raccoon, and other nonwriting animals. The humans recognize links between the MP's death and punishments in Dante's "Purgatory." They will be joined in their probe by Alfred Tennyson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, visiting from Boston, and bothered by the well-read Scotland Yard Detective Adolphus "Dolly" Williamson, who has trouble with the Fenians but is more intrigued by the Dante killing. Soon it's killings, starting with an opera singer whose eyes are sewn shut before she's bizarrely impaled. While the literati grow concerned that Gabriel is involved in the deaths, an ex-Pinkerton operative arrives in England to try to capitalize on the crimes the way he did with those in Boston that Pearl (The Last Bookaneer, 2015, etc.) described in The Dante Club. Displaying extensive knowledge of the period and the writers, Pearl builds an intricate, well-layered plot. His addition of Holmes, one of the previous book's main players, supplies a bridge between the U.S. and U.K. Dantean crimes. The language has nice period touches but overall is less overdone than in Pearl's past. And his focus on Christina among several imposing male writers makes narrative sense but is also a refreshing choice and produces a complex, appealing character.A thoroughly entertaining excursion to the literary England of the late 19th century with some ink-stained amateur detectives.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172023606 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 05/29/2018 |
| Series: | The Dante Club , #2 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,158,245 |
Videos
