When a famed director is set to release his last film, based on Dante’s Inferno, the premiere is disrupted by the online murder of its star and the theft of an ancient death mask, that of Dante himself. The Carabinieri are in charge of the murder investigation, but Falcone and his team are given the task of guarding the remaining artifacts at the new premiere site, San Francisco. Once there, Nic becomes embroiled in the world of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a film that has more ties to Inferno than it first appears, ties the lead to more mayhem and death….I enjoy the Nic Costa series best when it is situated in Rome, but the occasional trips outside that city are intriguing too. Unfortunately, I lived in San Francisco for many years and the inaccuracies in this book distracted me from the story: for example, one cannot see the downtown skyline with the ocean behind it from above the Haight as the ocean is in the opposite direction, and poison ivy exists on the US East Coast, not in California (where we have poison oak - a minor point, but still). Those annoyances aside, this is a solid entry in the series, while being rather less gory than some of the other novels; I don’t think that one would have to have read the earlier books to enjoy this one, except of course that it is a richer experience if one is already familiar with these characters. Recommended! ( )

Too many plot and character components to make a cohesive storyline. The ending and semi-climax c overs one plot line, but leaves at least two others dangling.
Concur with other 2! 1/2 star reviews. ( )

"Niet geschoten is altijd mis." An amusing novel that reads away quite easily, the plot is easy to follow but not too shallow. Unfortunately, the characters (except maybe for Nic Costa and Maggie Flavier) miss any sign of depth and - most frustratingly - the ending is one big deus ex machina. The Dantesk references in the first chapter end abruptly and are not picked up again later, as if they are only there for distraction.

All in all, a nice book for a summer holiday, but not the 'literary pageturner', nor the 'sinister combination of Dante's Divina Comedia and Hitchcock's Vertigo, as advertised on the back cover. Although I definitely want to see that movie now. ( )

One of the problems with reading books like these out of series is not being up to speed on all the things that have happened to the continuing characters in earlier books. I had read the first book (A Season for the Dead) a few years ago. In this, the seventh, the lead character seems to be in "neutral," the story revolves around a fifty-year-old movie and Dante is shunted off to the sidelines about half-way through. But, hey, there was a good explanation of a "tontine." ( )

This book had a name change- it was originally published as Dante's Numbers but now goes by the name of The Dante Killings. I picked it for my little mystery group and, as it turns out, I am the only one of the group who read it. I would have liked to have someone to bounce ideas and opinions around with... because, frankly, I found this book confusing and annoying and thrilling and clever and frustrating as hell.

I had a great deal of difficulty getting into the story. I had to re-read passages because I had no idea what was going on. I don't know if it was because of the Roman locale or because of something else. I did not realize that this was #7 in a series- perhaps I was missing vital storyline from prior books that would have made this one more enjoyable. Regardless, had I not been reading for my group discussion, I probably would have tossed it after 100 pages.

However, despite my initial dislike of the book, from a theory of one of the characters there came one of those fabulous and juicy "Holy Crap!" moments. From that point on, the story moved with the intensity of a Category 5 hurricane. The action was fast and furious and I could not have put the book down if I had wanted to. The twists and turns were way too fascinating and required every ounce of focus I possessed.

But then... the climax occurred (lots of thrills and chills and horror and stuff) and the book abruptly ended. I mean BOOM- the door has been shut in my face, the curtain has closed, good night and go home. I tried to thumb through the back cover, positive that there must be one more chapter somewhere. But, no, there was nothing else. I felt a bit cheated for a while until it dawned on me that the author left the details for me to suss out on my own. So I suppose I'll have to think about it for a while and come up with suitable disposition for everyone involved.

Or maybe I'll just read the next one in the series... ( )