The Club Dumas

Arturo Perez-Reverte

This Spanish mystery is set in the rare book world. The book collectors are not looking for first editions of the 20th century. They are looking for original manuscripts from the 19th century and before. Corso is a middle man for these collectors. He helps locate the special finds, then sells them to the highest bidder.

What appears to be an original chapter of Dumas' The Three Musketeers is given to him by a book seller to authenticate. At the same time, another dealer gives him one of three existing copies of a devil worship book printed in the 1600's. While checking the Dumas manuscript and comparing the three copies of The Nine Doors, Corso finds himself being followed and attacked. The more he digs, the stranger things become.

He starts spotting the people following him, including a girl around eighteen or twenty. She is the first one to warn him that an owner of the of the three copies of The Nine Doors was killed after Corso left him. She claims she is trying to protect him, but Corso is not sure.

This is a dark, fascinating tale, plus a great public relations stunt for The Three Musketeers all the way through. The interweaving of the two texts lead to an unexpected ending. This one pulls one final punch on the last page. I recommend it. It seems to drag at times, although I could not tell you where now. I learned a lot about the field of rare, old books, plus the forgery of them.

3/13/2000 Note: The new movie just being released, The Nine Doors, is based on this book. Johnny Depp looks too sophisticated in the trailers to be the world weary Corso, in my opinion.

Note: Non-graphic violence, Strong indecent language, Strong sexual content