First published 2009
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his fellow Harvard scholars gather in 1865 Boston to complete their translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. The poets Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell join publisher J. T. Fields in this literary mission to bring Dante to American readers. Harvard's elite oppose their work, fearing foreign influences will corrupt American minds like the immigrants flooding Boston Harbor. Then brutal murders begin plaguing the city. The killings follow the torments described in Dante's Inferno with horrifying precision. Only the translation team recognizes the connection between the crimes and the medieval text they know so intimately. Holmes partners with Nicholas Rey, Boston's first black police officer, to hunt the killer before authorities uncover their secret investigation. As bodies accumulate and their literary cause hangs in the balance, the scholars discover the murderer's identity strikes closer to their circle than they imagined.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, crime, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Boston, Harvard
Period: 1865
528 pages · Mass Market Paperback · labutxaca