The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

This is a story of four Princeton under-graduate roomies - Tom, Paul, Charlie and Gil. Tom (son of a renaissance scholar) and Paul have a passion to decrypt a mysterious 15th century novel, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which is supposedly a collection of cryptic clues which lead to a "pot of wisdom".

You might be tempted to classify this as just a treasure-hunting page-turner in which pages have been filled up with some senseless unrealistic connection between destinations. This is nothing like your conventional treasure hunters' tale. It is more like a first person account given by Tom about his life in a period of a few years in his life.

It does not feature just a single minded pursuit of some treasure with other aspects of their lives completely ignored which is what I loved. This has clearly etched out characters. All the aspects of their lives during that period have been depicted in a manner which occasionally almost dwarfs Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

It’s the lighter moments, the sub plots and deviations in the story line that make the story even better. The reader is always reminded of the fact that these are students and not professionals of any sort, leave alone treasure-hunters. They couldn’t possibly have the same intoxicating pursuit of their goal. They have a life and a friendship which they share. Things would’ve been quite fulfilling even without this 15th century addition.

It’s evident from the writing style and the plot that this book has been written by someone of tremendous IQ. Even the sub plots have been created with great craft. The meandering route of the story really makes you value the journey more than the eventual destination! It would’ve been a really taxing read had it not been for the way in which the story has been told because the way in which the actual puzzle is solved leaves a lot to the reader's understanding, imagination and some degree of intellect.

The reader actually starts living with Tom day after day because he knows so much about this character.When things start to unfold it’s a complex web of solving the puzzle, internal fights, misunderstandings, murders, deceit which lead us to the climax. It does seem a fitting end to a gripping tale.

My guess is this was just a one-off attempt by amateur authors, who also happen to be Harvard and Princeton alumni, since they haven't written before or since this book. I hope I'm wrong!

Cheers!