The Rule of Four - Softcover

Ian Caldwell And Dustin Thomason

3.29

37,377 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594130779 ISBN 13: 9781594130779

Publisher: Large Print Press, 2005

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A New York Times Bestseller

An ivy league murder, a mysterious coded manuscript, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide - a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship, high art and unimaginable treachery. Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries.

Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the book may finally reveal its secrets - to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with it, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it - when an ancient diary surfaces. Armed with the final clue, the two friends delve into a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, the campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book has been murdered.

Ian Caldwell was Phi Beta Kappa in history at Princeton University. He lives in Newport News, Virginia. Dustin Thomason won the Hoopes Prize at Harvard University. He lives in New York City. They began writing The Rule of Four after graduating in 1998. The two have been best friends since they were eight years old.

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From the Inside Flap:

An ivy league murder, a mysterious coded manuscript, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide memorably in THE RULE OF FOUR -- a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship, high art and unimaginable treachery.

It's Easter at Princeton. Seniors are scrambling to finish their theses. And two students, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, are a hair's breadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili--a renowned text attributed to an Italian nobleman, a work that has baffled scholars since its publication in 1499. For Tom, their research has been a link to his family's past -- and an obstacle to the woman he loves. For Paul, it has become an obsession, the very reason for living. But as their deadline looms, research has stalled -- until a long-lost diary surfaces with a vital clue. And when a fellow researcher is murdered just hours later, Tom and Paul realize that they are not the first to glimpse the Hypnerotomachia 's secrets.

Suddenly the stakes are raised, and as the two friends sift through the codes and riddles at the heart of the text, they are beginnning to see the manuscript in a new light--not simply as a story of faith, eroticism and pedantry, but as a bizarre, coded mathematical maze. And as they come closer and closer to deciphering the final puzzle of a book that has shattered careers, friendships and families, they know that their own lives are in mortal danger. Because at least one person has been killed for knowing too much. And they know even more.

From the streets of fifteenth-century Rome to the rarified realm of the Ivy League, from a shocking 500 year-old murder scene to the drama of a young man's coming of age, THE RULE OF FOUR takes us on an entertaining, illuminating tour of history--as it builds to a pinnacle of nearly unbearable suspense.

From the Back Cover:

"Caldwell and Thomason have created a stunning first novel; a perfect blend of suspense and a sensitive coming of age story. If Scott Fitzgerald, Umberto Eco, and Dan Brown teamed up to write a novel, the result would be THE RULE OF FOUR. An extraordinary and brilliant accomplishment - a must read."

--Nelson DeMille

"This debut packs all the esoteric information of The Da Vinci Code ... with lovely writing reminiscent of Donna Tartt's The Secret History.... A compulsively readable novel." --People, Critic's Choice/4 stars

"As much a blazingly good yarn as it is an exceptional piece of scholarship ... a smart, swift, multitextured tale that both entertains and informs."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Profoundly erudite ... the ultimate puzzle book."
--The New York Times Book Review

"[An] intriguing intellectual suspense novel."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"If you have a taste for puzzle-solving ... you'll be rewarded."
--San Jose Mercury News

"An impressive debut, a coming-of-age novel in the guise of a thriller, packed with history (real and invented) and intellectual excitement."
--Booklist

"Astonishingly good ... intricate, erudite, and intensely pleasurable." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Riveting, poignant, and intensely intimate, THE RULE OF FOUR is a thinking person's thriller of the highest order." --Bookpage

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