Definitely Not Lost in Translation

The Club Dumas
Arturo Perez-Reverte
Harcourt

When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? For the longest time, I was convinced that I was going to be a journalist, get a job with CBC radio, and travel the world. Sometime during university, I realized that I wasn't emotionally tough enough to become the next Mary Lou Findlay, so I decided that I would get married to my then boyfriend and eventually go to grad school to become a literature professor. The boy, well, he dumped me partway through grad school and since I was tired of being a dirt poor student, the other part of the dream faded away as well.

Ask me today what I want to be when I grow up, I'm going to say that I want to become Lucas Corso -- the very rumpled, borderline alcoholic, wolfish, book hunting hero of The Club Dumas. If I had to describe this novel in a sentence, I would probably say that it's The Da Vinci Code for the well-read. The story opens with a possible murder -- a well-known bibliophile is found hanged in his apartment, leaving behind a fragment of Dumas' original manuscript for The Three Musketeers. Corso is hired to authenticate the text and he suddenly finds himself swept into a mystery that involves satanic rituals, angels and demons, forgeries, and of course, a little bit of romance. Set against the backdrop of some of Europe's most literary and beautiful cities, this novel is meant for book-loving cynics.

Corso, while not entirely likeable, gains the reader's admiration and respect -- despite the fact that he uses questionable methods in pursuit of the truth. Like any good thriller, the author kept me guessing right to the very end. You'll have to read it for yourselves to find out more. I would advise you, however, to crack open your Latin text, fire up Google for some of the more obscure references, and do your best imitation of Sherlock Holmes. Four very melodramatic fleur-de-lis out of five.