Book Review: The Rule of Four

A mystery fan am I at the core
But Da Vinci Code has left me sore
I found that historical quest a bore
But then, thought I, let's try one more

Book: The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

Enter Caldwell and Thomason, who promised me what Dan Brown couldn't give me: a good story within a book about ancient texts and hidden codes. They did a good job. The characters were developed with far greater mastery than Brown's, the historical mystery plot ran concurrently with one about coming-of-age, and the writing was well-penned.

It's about two Princeton students who have been working on deciphering a (real, though currently uncracked) Renaissance text, the Hypneromachia Poliphili, which may hold the clue to a certain crypt containing innumerable treasures.

When another student of the text is murdered, these students pick up the pace, trying to solve a mystery that has suddenly resurfaced, 500 years after the book was first written.

I liked this one. It was a page turner but wove in elements of the graduating undergraduate's student's indecision, unease for the future, and university relationships. In addition, the story was much more plausable than that of the Da Vinci Code. The book also contains an afterword which acts as the authors' disclaimer, that the events of the book were entirely fictional though they included descriptions of real art, architechture, and historical figures. Hm. Maybe the Da Vinci Code should have included one of those as well, so American Idiots wouldn't actually think that there's some mystery at the Louvre and the Catholic Church is to blame for most of the crimes since Da Vinci. I'm just saying. But I digress.

Good book, good read for anyone who likes the action-mystery (i.e. less like Agatha Christie, and more like Robert Ludlum).