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Page Modified: February 13, 2008

 

 

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

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Bibliographic citation:
· Authors: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
· Title: The Rule of Four
· Publisher: Dial Press
· Publication Date: May, 2004
· ISBN: 0-385-33711-6
· $ 24.00
· # pages: 384
· Genre: Psychological suspense

About the Authors:

Ian Caldwell attended Princeton University, where he studied history. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1998.

Dustin Thomason attended Harvard University, where he studied anthropology and medicine. He won the Hoopes Prize for undergraduate writing, and graduated in 1998.

 

The Rule of Four

 

The Secret History meets The Name of the Rose in this riveting debut about two best friends at Princeton who decipher a famous Renaissance text to unlock a centuries-old mystery.

Since its publication in 1499, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili has puzzled scholars who have tried to understand its many mysteries. Coded in seven languages, the text is at once a passionate love story, an intricate mathematical labyrinth, and a tale of arcane brutality.

Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris each have deeply personal reasons for wanting to unveil the secrets of the Hypnerotomachia. When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems the two friends have found the key to the labyrinth – but when a fellow researcher is murdered only hours later, they suddenly realize that they are caught in a web of great danger. And what they discover embedded in the text stuns them: a narrative detailing the passion of a Renaissance prince, a hidden crypt full of treasures, and a secret worth dying to protect. - Dustin Thomason

· What other books are like it?

The Secret History by Donna Tartt, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Ecco, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. - Dustin Thomason

· What would you like readers to know about you/your work?

We’ve been writing together since we were eight years old – everything from class plays to graduation speeches – so we had time to iron out our creative differences long before we started working on The Rule of Four. We started The Rule of Four side-by-side in our parents’ basements in Virginia, but ended up writing most of it while living almost a thousand miles apart. We planned scenes and chapters in advance over the phone, then divided the work and exchanged drafts over email until we had each made several passes over every word. - Dustin Thomason

· What’s next, what can your readers look forward to in the future?

We expected to finish writing The Rule of Four during our three-month summer vacation after college graduation. In reality, it took us almost five years. We underestimated both the challenge of writing a fast-paced novel and the amount of research involved in creating a storyline that interweaves the past and present. We’re trying to learn from those experiences as we begin writing our second novel together. - Dustin Thomason

· Links: www.theruleoffour.com

· Additional Overbooked Readalike Suggestions:

These books and authors feature plenty of literary suspense and plot lines related to literature, art, and history.

Authors: Joseph Kanon, Daniel Silva, Iain Pears, Martin Cruz Smith

Titles: The Codex by Lev Grossman, The Eighth Day by John Case, The Eight by Katherine Neville.

 

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