A Neo-noir for the bookworm, strewn with literary references and a crash course in antique book collecting - I expected a lot from The Dumas Club. Unfortunately, I’ve been left disappointed. The book sows the seeds of intrigue early on and it has all the tenets of a classic detective novel - including a puzzle that the reader is invited to try and solve as the story progresses - however, this is no Agatha Christie (despite one or two references to the queen of crime).
First off, I was a huge fan of the Roman Polanski film - it’s how I came to find the book actually. I usually prefer to read the book first, as having a film in mind always colours my imaginations of the scenes and characters. However, The Dumas Club is significantly different from the Ninth Gate. I won’t give any spoilers, but the biggest difference is that the movie has completely done away with the Dumas aspect - and after reading I can’t help but feel this was a good call.
The characters are cliched in a certain sense - but it’s important to note that this is entirely intentional and actually part of the novel’s main theme. That being said, other than the central protagonist, Lucas Corso, there is little by way of characterisation - intentional or not.
The plot of the Dumas Club is good fun. It throws up a lot of questions and at times the novel is something of a page-turner. Perez-Reverte seems to fit into the mold of a thinking man’s Dan Brown. The story effectively centres around one big red herring - and that’s what makes it entertaining. However, it starts to get tiresome towards the end and the way the story wraps up left me a little disappointed. Perez-Reverte cleverly acknowledges at least one narrative gimmick (no spoilers) but the whole novel hinges upon one, which I’m not sure was intentional.
All in all, the Dumas Club was entertaining but disappointing - to a fan of the film that is. I would certainly like to read more of Perez-Reverte’s novels in the future and there is every chance that I missed out on the inside joke here.
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