The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Synopsis: A novel about novel-lovers (Hel-lo! Love at first sentence!). Lucas Corso, a cranky alcoholic Spaniard, is hired to determine the authenticity of an original manuscript of Chapter 46 (or something) of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas AND the authenticity of a 17th century manual for...er...summoning the devil. As you can imagine lots of excitement ensues.
Synopsis: A novel about novel-lovers (Hel-lo! Love at first sentence!). Lucas Corso, a cranky alcoholic Spaniard, is hired to determine the authenticity of an original manuscript of Chapter 46 (or something) of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas AND the authenticity of a 17th century manual for...er...summoning the devil. As you can imagine lots of excitement ensues.
Readability: Tough. Originally written in Spanish and translated to English, TCD is a challenging read, which was a refreshing change from the murder mysteries I usually blow through. Not so tough, however, that it was unenjoyable. The intricacy of the plot was really impressive. Even now, I can't believe what Perez-Reverte did in 300 short pages.
Predictability: I could NOT figure this one out. You know I love that. To the last SENTENCE, I didn't know where we were going.
Couldn't Put it Down Factor: I didn't have trouble putting down The Club Dumas because it was rather involved to read, but believe me when I say that it was NEVER far from my thoughts. It took me 4 days to finish, and they were four well-enjoyed days.
Recommend it?: Y.E.S. To be honest, if I had known, I probably wouldn't have chosen this one because I'm not huge on Satan...you know...but by the time I realized what was going on, it was too late. The saving grace is that the book and story line have very little if nothing to do with Satan and everything to do with Corso. It is surprisingly un-scary, as Perez-Reverte doesn't go into anything to do with spiritual warfare and keeps the focus on Corso's task at hand. Even so, this one really isn't for the faint of heart, but can be read with the same fictional attitude as one would read Demon: A Memoir or Angels & Demons. I would call The Club Dumas a (wonderful!) mystery/thriller with some religious overtones. Period.
Four and half out of Five stars.
Predictability: I could NOT figure this one out. You know I love that. To the last SENTENCE, I didn't know where we were going.
Couldn't Put it Down Factor: I didn't have trouble putting down The Club Dumas because it was rather involved to read, but believe me when I say that it was NEVER far from my thoughts. It took me 4 days to finish, and they were four well-enjoyed days.
Recommend it?: Y.E.S. To be honest, if I had known, I probably wouldn't have chosen this one because I'm not huge on Satan...you know...but by the time I realized what was going on, it was too late. The saving grace is that the book and story line have very little if nothing to do with Satan and everything to do with Corso. It is surprisingly un-scary, as Perez-Reverte doesn't go into anything to do with spiritual warfare and keeps the focus on Corso's task at hand. Even so, this one really isn't for the faint of heart, but can be read with the same fictional attitude as one would read Demon: A Memoir or Angels & Demons. I would call The Club Dumas a (wonderful!) mystery/thriller with some religious overtones. Period.
Four and half out of Five stars.
2 comments:
I have that on my shelves waiting to be read. Thanks for the review. I trust your opinion.
This sounds a lot like a book by Tosca Lee.
Thought I'd drop by and say hello!
Chas
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