Dante's Numbers

DANTE'S NUMBERS has already created some stir in certain quarters. It is the latest of David Hewson's novels concerning Rome police detective Nic Costa, but it transports him to environs far removed from Italy. The controversy that this change of scenery has created obscures the fact that this is the author's best book to date. The novel opens in Rome on the eve of the world premiere of a film adaptation of Dante's INFERNO. The project has not been without controversy, which the director and producer have welcomed for the attendant publicity. All of this attention takes a violent turn, however, when two murders occur. One of the victims is the male lead in the movie, and the bizarre method of his death is broadcast live on the Internet. The website from which the airing of this crime originates has ties to San Francisco, so that the investigation, led by the heavy-handed Carabinieri officers, is transferred there. Costa, Leo Falcone, Gianni Peroni and Teresa Lupo are in tow, due to the fact that Dante's death mask, on loan with other Dante-related artifacts from San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, has gone missing. The Rome police are charged with guarding the artifacts while they are being returned to San Francisco, as well as hopefully recovering the missing mask. Let's digress for a moment. We have Italian policemen in San Francisco in a mystery written by a British author. It is this change of locale that has given rise to the controversy surrounding DANTE'S NUMBERS. Let me assure you: the setting is perfect. Just as Hewson has demonstrated a native's familiarity with Rome in his previous Costa novels, so too does he "get" the rhythm and beat of San Francisco without unnecessarily pandering to its more scatological and controversial elements. Rather than setting the story in North Beach, for example, he places his police officers in the Cow Hollow area. This makes sense, given the location of the Palace of Fine Arts, but it is also challenging to make it interesting. Hewson meets that challenge, and then some. Other elements such as the weather, the manner in which distances can be so deceiving, and one of San Francisco's most under-appreciated treasures --- the Mission Dolores --- are also given proper due. San Francisco though is primarily a place of the heart, and indeed neither Falcone nor Costa is immune. Still emotionally reeling from the murder of his wife, Costa feels the faint stirrings of attraction for Maggie Flavier. Cast as Dante's Beatrice in INFERNO, Flavier first attracts Costa's eye in Rome. Given that she is a resident of San Francisco, their paths continue to cross. It is Costa's unwillingness to let go of the murder investigation (and Falcone's half-hearted attempt to reign him in) that sends him along San Francisco's less known and less traveled roads. When Flavier herself becomes the target of a poison attack and additional murders occur, Costa continues in earnest, little knowing how close he and Maggie are to the h

It was slow moving with alot of filler, was rather disappointed as have read most of his previouw novels. I will try one more when he comes out with one in 2010.

As someone who lived in San Francisco for 20 years, and just watched Vertigo on-line as soon as I saw it mentioned in the book, reading "Dante's Numbers" was a total delight. And that's saying something for a suspense novel with brutal murders - but I loved it and highly recommend it. This is a perfect book for people who enjoy San Francisco, Hitchcock and David Hewson.

I'm a David Hewson fan and his Roman Investigators. He always comes up with a surprise ending, one that you pretty much had no clue as to what it was going to be. Awaiting the next book in this series.

In Florence, Italy, terminally ill septuagenarian director Roberto Tonti is hosting a special premier of his new movie Inferno. As part of the gala, a fourteenth century death mask of Dante is on display. However, instead of the priceless original, someone replaces it with a death mask of the star American actor Allan Prime. The person wearing the Prime mask is gruesomely murdered and the American actor is missing. Soon afterward someone in a Carbiniere uniform stalks the film's leading actress Maggie Flavier, but her attacker is shot. Whereas the Carbiniere insist case closed blaming the robbery, homicide and assault on a fanatic madman, Police Detective Nic Costa thinks otherwise; that is when he is not feeling self pity as a widower of six months and not even thirty. He, accompanied by officers Leo Falcone and Gianni Peroni and pathologist Teresa Lupo, heads to San Francisco where Tonti's film is premiering next in order to prevent further murders as they believe a killer remains on the loose. The Dante connection in Italy is one of the best police procedural opening segues in years. When the story line and the four musketeers shift to San Francisco, the story line remains fun, but loses some of its steam as three of the Italian cops are distracted; only grieving Costa, even with a new girlfriend, remains focused on the investigation. He is not so ably assisted by locals, who add humor to the mix. Although the villains are over the top of Nob Hill, fans of the series will enjoy Costa and his mates as they travel the mean streets of San Francisco. Harriet Klausner