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In Florence, scholar/sleuth Homer Kelly must foil a plot to kill the Pope in a "voluptuously detailed" mystery in which Langton's "exuberant wit runs riot" (The New York Times Book Review). When the Pope issues a sweeping edict calling for a yearlong war on drugs, no one is more surprised than the Vatican to find the campaign a success. In every Catholic corner of the world, young people throw down their needles to pick up crosses. In Florence, thousands of them converge on the Duomo to show more thank Christ for their newfound commitment to sobriety. Nearly everyone is relieved by this development--save for Leonardo Bindo, banker and druglord. To get his business back on track, he seizes upon a simple plan: Kill the Pope. Standing in his way is Homer Kelly, transcendentalist scholar and occasional detective. In Florence to teach at a new international university, Homer stumbles on Bindo's scheme while investigating the disappearance of a beautiful young student. His Italian may be lousy, but Homer is the only man who can save Italy from itself. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Takes improbable to new heights. Cute illustrations? Reminiscent of the now quaint illustrations of the Half Magic books or the Happy Hollisters. Hmmm...suppose this would be more meaningful if I were say...ten? I suppose the best I can say is that it is good brainless reading. Need to relax with a not very challenging mystery and like a romantic Italian setting? This is for you. Otherwise, stick to Donna Leon or Iain Pears for un mistero di vecchia Italia. Or Pearl's Dante Club for a Dante flavored mind twister. Arrivederci for now.
Takes improbable to new heights. Cute illustrations? Reminiscent of the now quaint illustrations of the Half Magic books or the Happy Hollisters. Hmmm...suppose this would be more meaningful if I were say...ten? I suppose the best I can say is that it is good brainless reading. Need to relax with a not very challenging mystery and like a romantic Italian setting? This is for you. Otherwise, stick to Donna Leon or Iain Pears for un mistero di vecchia Italia. Or Pearl's Dante Club for a Dante flavored mind twister. Arrivederci for now.
Takes improbable to new heights. Cute illustrations? Reminiscent of the now quaint illustrations of the Half Magic books or the Happy Hollisters. Hmmm...suppose this would be more meaningful if I were say...ten? I suppose the best I can say is that it is good brainless reading. Need to relax with a not very challenging mystery and like a romantic Italian setting? This is for you. Otherwise, stick to Donna Leon or Iain Pears for un mistero di vecchia Italia. Or Pearl's Dante Club for a Dante flavored mind twister. Arrivederci for now.
This is the second Jane Langton mystery I have read and I enjoyed it more than "Dead as a Dodo." Langton's scenic descriptions of Florence are tempting to those who have never been there. However, as with the aforementioned novel, she comes up short with the character development. You are indeed kept guessing until the end, but when you finally get there it is hard to feel empathy, disgust or anything at all. The characters seem complex, but we never get to see those complexities revealed, and when they are, it is in a hurried fashion to tie up loose ends.
The book will appeal to anyone involved with university academia, anyone who has been to Florence, or anyone interested in the socio-political climate surrounding the Vatican. The show more writing is versatile and the cast of characters is amusing. I am not sure "A Homer Kelly Mystery" is an apt description because he is not featured in any special way in the novel and is one of the least interesting characters. show less
The book will appeal to anyone involved with university academia, anyone who has been to Florence, or anyone interested in the socio-political climate surrounding the Vatican. The show more writing is versatile and the cast of characters is amusing. I am not sure "A Homer Kelly Mystery" is an apt description because he is not featured in any special way in the novel and is one of the least interesting characters. show less
I really wanted to like this book. I really wanted to read about Florence and enjoy a mystery story at the same time. Unfortunately, Langton's grasp of Catholicism and the possible motivations and actions of Catholic clergy is (if possible) even weaker than Dan Brown's, and she chooses to make a ludicrously improbable dissident priest the central figure of the book. I skipped over several early chapters in hopes the book would get better, but it didn't. The characters are cardboard and the plot limps through the whole painful 336 pages.
I didn't really get a sense of the uniqueness of Florence either. Perhaps if I had visited the city as a tourist rather than the guest of a Florentine family, it would have seemed more recognizable.
I didn't really get a sense of the uniqueness of Florence either. Perhaps if I had visited the city as a tourist rather than the guest of a Florentine family, it would have seemed more recognizable.
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Author Information
34+ Works 8,929 Members
Jane Langton was born Jane Gillson in Belmont, Massachusetts on December 30, 1922. She received a bachelor's degree in art history in 1944 and a master's degree in art history in 1945 from the University of Michigan. She received a second master's degree in art history from Radcliffe College in 1948. She studied at the Boston Museum School from show more 1958 to 1959. Her writing career began with children's books. Her first book, The Majesty of Grace, was published in 1961. She illustrated several of her children's books. She wrote a young adult series entitled the Hall Family Chronicles. The fourth book in the series, The Fledgling, was a Newbery Honor book. She also wrote an adult mystery series entitled the Homer Kelly mysteries. The fifth book in the series, Emily Dickinson Is Dead, received a Nero Wolfe Award and an Edgar Award. In 2017, she received the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award for the series. She died from complications of a respiratory condition on December 22, 2018 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Dante Game
- Original title
- The Dante Game
- Original publication date
- 1991
- People/Characters
- Homer Kelly
- Important places
- Florence, Tuscany, Italy
- Dedication
- For Ilse Plume
- First words
- It was a matter of simple geometry.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'It is so bitter, it goes nigh to death; yet there I gained such good, that, to convey the take, I'll wrte what else i found therewith.' -- Inferno I, 4-9
- Blurbers
- Michaels, Barbara
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 227
- Popularity
- 144,119
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.43)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 6
