The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

I had high hopes for this novel, but ultimately it fell a little flat. I love historical fiction with real characters, and this one has literary figures Oliver Wendell Holmes, Longfellow, and others. The setting is Boston, and murders that copy punishments from Dante's Inferno are occurring at the same time that Longfellow is translating the Inferno to English. The literary figures become reluctant detectives.

But I think the author has real problems with the omniscient narration. I am not an inexperienced reader, and I had difficulty following the thread of the narration at times, especially when exciting events were taking place. It is not always clear whose eyes we are viewing a scene through, or even what is actually happening.

It's still an entertaining read though, and the literary allusions are very well done.

Link to Amazon: The Dante Club: A Novel