Super Short Summary

In 1865 Boston during the American Civil War, Police Chief John Kurtz investigates the brutal murder of Supreme Court Justice Artemus Healey, whose killing mirrors scenes from Dante’s Inferno. A group of poets, known as The Dante Club, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., James Russel Lowell, and George Washington Greene, realize the murders are modeled after the poem they are translating and launch their own investigation to catch the perpetrator. The story explores themes of justice, literature, and historical tension. Includes depictions of violence.