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The Dante Conspiracy
An ancient secret means the difference between life or death in this chilling thriller, perfect for readers of Dan Brown
No murder of passion, it is clearly a professional job. When, hours later, thieves break into Dante’s cenotaph, it seems the two crimes may be connected by some missing verses from the ‘Divine Comedy’.
When the body of a poetry professor is found tortured in a deserted barn outside Florence, Inspector Perini is assigned to the case.
No murder of passion, it is clearly a professional job. When, hours later, thieves break into Dante’s cenotaph, it seems the two crimes may be connected by some missing verses from the ‘Divine Comedy’.
They could contain a code so valuable someone is willing to murder for it. But who? And why? As the bodies pile up, Inspector Perini is in a deadly race to find the secret before the killers.
The truth will prove more shocking and dangerous then he could have imagined…
The Dante Conspiracy is a chilling thriller perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Steve Berry and Alex Connor.
‘An edge-of-the-seat thriller, with fantastic historical detail’ Robert Foster, bestselling author of The Lunar Code
145 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 8, 2013
About the author
Tom Kasey
5 books11 followersTom Kasey is a pen name of Peter Stuart Smith.
& James Becker.
& James Becker.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 18, 2018
A great fan of James Becker’s work, I was pleased to come across this novella that mixes a police procedural with some Italian literary history. Professor Antonio Bertorelli is found tortured and murdered after an apparent struggle, though it is not entirely clear who might want to harm him. When Sergeant Cesare Lombardi and Inspector Silvio Perini arrive at the scene, they are equally confused, but soon learn that Bertorelli was quite knowledgeable when it came to Dante’s Divine Comedy , having penned an interesting academic article on the topic only weeks before. In the article, Bertorelli posits that Dante may have written an alternate part to his famous work, or at least amended it with some clues to another important document that he wished could come to light. As Lombardi and Perini seek to find the killer and get to the root of this homicide, there are a few hooded men who have been trying to crack Dante’s code themselves, ready to stop at nothing to horde the results for themselves. Lombardi and Perini find themselves surrounded by Italian history as the sift through much of the time in which Dante lived, hoping to better understand what the killers sought. What they find may shock not only historians keen on the period, but the larger academic community. Becker does a wonderful job keeping the reader hooked with this novella, mixing history and mystery into a brief piece of writing. Recommended for those who enjoy Becker’s past work as well as the curious reader who likes historical mysteries.
I tend to find that James Becker not only packs a punch with his writing abilities, but fills each story with so much history that the reader cannot help but go away knowing so much more. This piece is no exception, as Becker pushes a thirteenth/fourteenth century historical mystery into the early narrative and does not let it go until the final chapter. With so little time to explore character development, Lombardi and Perini receiving much of their connection to the reader through the sleuthing that they do. They ask the poignant questions and posit interesting solutions to issues throughout, keeping the reader feeling as though they are part of the investigation. The story moves forward at a clipped pace, mixing investigation of the murder with a great deal of history related to Dante. The story offers up both the man’s place in the larger Italian community as well as information about the Divine Comedy in general. Becker does not pull any punches, flooding the piece with a great deal of fact in order to push the narrative in a certain direction. I was happy to go along for the ride, admittedly hoping that much of what I was being told could be grounded in fact and not fallacy in order to spice up the story. Becker always seeks to reveal new aspects of history to keep his reader wondering and searching for more information. This novella was surely no exception.
Kudos, Mr. Becker, for another wonderful historical mystery. I am eager to get my hands on more of your work, as you seem to be churning out some interesting standalone pieces at the moment.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I tend to find that James Becker not only packs a punch with his writing abilities, but fills each story with so much history that the reader cannot help but go away knowing so much more. This piece is no exception, as Becker pushes a thirteenth/fourteenth century historical mystery into the early narrative and does not let it go until the final chapter. With so little time to explore character development, Lombardi and Perini receiving much of their connection to the reader through the sleuthing that they do. They ask the poignant questions and posit interesting solutions to issues throughout, keeping the reader feeling as though they are part of the investigation. The story moves forward at a clipped pace, mixing investigation of the murder with a great deal of history related to Dante. The story offers up both the man’s place in the larger Italian community as well as information about the Divine Comedy in general. Becker does not pull any punches, flooding the piece with a great deal of fact in order to push the narrative in a certain direction. I was happy to go along for the ride, admittedly hoping that much of what I was being told could be grounded in fact and not fallacy in order to spice up the story. Becker always seeks to reveal new aspects of history to keep his reader wondering and searching for more information. This novella was surely no exception.
Kudos, Mr. Becker, for another wonderful historical mystery. I am eager to get my hands on more of your work, as you seem to be churning out some interesting standalone pieces at the moment.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
May 17, 2019
Another history lesson
This moves at a fast pace, gripped from page 1.
I love books from this Author, I get entertained and usually learn some historical facts along the way.
This moves at a fast pace, gripped from page 1.
I love books from this Author, I get entertained and usually learn some historical facts along the way.
July 19, 2018
Fast paced well written and very enjoyable.Love the historical references and the twist at the end is very believeable.
May 5, 2019
Worth continuing
This book started very slowly and seemed to be Dan Brown fan fiction. Since I am not a big Dan Brown fan I almost gave up, but persisted and it turned out to be a pretty good short novel.
This book started very slowly and seemed to be Dan Brown fan fiction. Since I am not a big Dan Brown fan I almost gave up, but persisted and it turned out to be a pretty good short novel.
October 31, 2018
Quick and Exciting Read
I rated Mr. Hacker's book "The Dante Conspiracy" a 4, not so much for it's content, but for the poor editing job. There were numerous errors, some typos, but others just plain editing errors. Some of them could have thrown the reader off, although most readers would figure out what word should have been in the copy and realize which direction the writer was headed with the plot.
The story itself was good. I did feel that in some places, the details could have been "fleshed out" more. There were spots in the book where the action wrapped up far too quickly.
Having recently traveled to Florence for the first time, and having experienced Dante and his writing from living with a mother, a college professor who taught literature, and who exposed me to the Divine Comedy at a very early age, I was excited to find this novella. I learned some things about Dante that did not know before, and I am grateful to Mr. Becker for his thorough research into Dante's life.
I have read other Becker books and always enjoyed them. The poor editing bothered me, but not enough to spoil the read.
Kevin Henseler
I rated Mr. Hacker's book "The Dante Conspiracy" a 4, not so much for it's content, but for the poor editing job. There were numerous errors, some typos, but others just plain editing errors. Some of them could have thrown the reader off, although most readers would figure out what word should have been in the copy and realize which direction the writer was headed with the plot.
The story itself was good. I did feel that in some places, the details could have been "fleshed out" more. There were spots in the book where the action wrapped up far too quickly.
Having recently traveled to Florence for the first time, and having experienced Dante and his writing from living with a mother, a college professor who taught literature, and who exposed me to the Divine Comedy at a very early age, I was excited to find this novella. I learned some things about Dante that did not know before, and I am grateful to Mr. Becker for his thorough research into Dante's life.
I have read other Becker books and always enjoyed them. The poor editing bothered me, but not enough to spoil the read.
Kevin Henseler
May 3, 2026
I'm not entirely sure this could be called a full novel - it seemed to be over very quickly, and not because I couldn't put it down. I only picked this book up because it was a freebie on my Kindle, and when I searched it on Goodreads, it said that it was good for fans of The Da Vinci Code, which I am, although this book just made me wish I was reading that instead.
The premise of the book is that a professor is killed in Florence after publishing an article about finding some new verses of Dante's Divine Comedy - the verses seem to reveal clues to a hidden treasure somewhere. Naturally a bunch of people want this treasure, so the story follows two sets of criminals (including one set who killed the professor), and the police detective and his sergeant who are investigating the bodies left behind by the criminals as they search for the treasure.
While the premise is interesting, there was very little actual substance holding the book together. Perini and Lombardi started off interesting and intelligent, and this is all undone in the final few paragraphs of the book when they take the manuscript for themselves and threaten the poor museum worker over it, suddenly becoming no better than the criminals they were after.
Marco and his partner were ruthless and smart, and I did like following them because they were clearly professionals and took pride in their work, even if their work was just crime. The other group were less interesting, mostly because they were worse as criminals.
It would have been nice to have more information about the men who hired both groups, and learning why they wanted the manuscript and how they even found out about it to begin with, since they were clearly prepared to go incredibly far to get it. A lot of emphasis was also placed on one of them being Russian and the other Balkan, but this also didn't pan out to anything, so just left me wondering why it was said in the first place.
Most of the book is spent either watching the criminals chase after each other, or watching Perini and Lombardi try and put the pieces of the puzzle together, and then when they finally solve it, it gets wrapped up immediately after the world's shortest fire fight.
The setting stood out - clearly the author knows a lot about Florence and Dante, but sharing information doesn't make a story, so what you end up with is a bunch of scenes of people either breaking the law or investigating the crime, interspersed with long descriptions of coffee, Florence, and Italian history. It wants to be The Da Vinci Code, but it's not nearly as interesting or as well done, and the ending is abrupt and immediate, as though the author ran out of time to make a decent story and needed to wrap it up quickly. Not one I'll go back to, and not one that will have me seeking out this author's other works, so apart from some interesting descriptive scenes, I can only give it 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2.
The premise of the book is that a professor is killed in Florence after publishing an article about finding some new verses of Dante's Divine Comedy - the verses seem to reveal clues to a hidden treasure somewhere. Naturally a bunch of people want this treasure, so the story follows two sets of criminals (including one set who killed the professor), and the police detective and his sergeant who are investigating the bodies left behind by the criminals as they search for the treasure.
While the premise is interesting, there was very little actual substance holding the book together. Perini and Lombardi started off interesting and intelligent, and this is all undone in the final few paragraphs of the book when they take the manuscript for themselves and threaten the poor museum worker over it, suddenly becoming no better than the criminals they were after.
Marco and his partner were ruthless and smart, and I did like following them because they were clearly professionals and took pride in their work, even if their work was just crime. The other group were less interesting, mostly because they were worse as criminals.
It would have been nice to have more information about the men who hired both groups, and learning why they wanted the manuscript and how they even found out about it to begin with, since they were clearly prepared to go incredibly far to get it. A lot of emphasis was also placed on one of them being Russian and the other Balkan, but this also didn't pan out to anything, so just left me wondering why it was said in the first place.
Most of the book is spent either watching the criminals chase after each other, or watching Perini and Lombardi try and put the pieces of the puzzle together, and then when they finally solve it, it gets wrapped up immediately after the world's shortest fire fight.
The setting stood out - clearly the author knows a lot about Florence and Dante, but sharing information doesn't make a story, so what you end up with is a bunch of scenes of people either breaking the law or investigating the crime, interspersed with long descriptions of coffee, Florence, and Italian history. It wants to be The Da Vinci Code, but it's not nearly as interesting or as well done, and the ending is abrupt and immediate, as though the author ran out of time to make a decent story and needed to wrap it up quickly. Not one I'll go back to, and not one that will have me seeking out this author's other works, so apart from some interesting descriptive scenes, I can only give it 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2023
I didn't expect much from this so I wasn't really disappointed. It's too bad that the police seemed so ethically challenged, but it was hard to really care much about the story. The narrator on the edition I listened to , Peter Kenney, had a breathy, whispering delivery that made hearing it difficult with any ambient noise, whatsoever (I couldn't listen on the elliptical as I'd meant to do). Overall, pretty forgettable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2018
Becker’s “The Dante Conspiracy” was advertised as “an explosive novella you won’t be able to put down.” Well, I am not sure I would go that far, but it was a good book – but certainly not explosive. It did start off with a “bang,” and the action did keep moving most of the time. The book is touted like a short Dan Brown novel, but really the only comparison was the use of Dante and Dante’s mask. The plot did reveal a series of Dante related clues that are systematically unraveled to get at the truth – to solve the mystery.
The story opens with the torture of Professor Bertorelli, whose tortured body is later found. When Inspector Silvio Perini and Sergeant Cesare Lombardi arrive at the scene, they are equally confused;
who would want to harm a harmless and elderly professor? In time, the only small clue they discover was the Professor’s discovery of a possible ancient text - possible missing verses from the ‘Divine Comedy’ - by Dante. And the mystery commences with break-ins, murder, and several groups trying to solve the meaning of the discovered words. Becker well-crafted plot keeps the reader hooked, mixing action, suspense, history and mystery into this novella.
The story opens with the torture of Professor Bertorelli, whose tortured body is later found. When Inspector Silvio Perini and Sergeant Cesare Lombardi arrive at the scene, they are equally confused;
who would want to harm a harmless and elderly professor? In time, the only small clue they discover was the Professor’s discovery of a possible ancient text - possible missing verses from the ‘Divine Comedy’ - by Dante. And the mystery commences with break-ins, murder, and several groups trying to solve the meaning of the discovered words. Becker well-crafted plot keeps the reader hooked, mixing action, suspense, history and mystery into this novella.
September 26, 2018
This is an OK story but I disagree with most of the super positive reviews. For the most part, the story is slow moving, although it is interesting, but not compelling. It's a decent story but the ending falls flat. There wasn't enough of a payoff for me. I've read other things that Becker has written and he writes decent stories. This would have been much more compelling if the stakes were higher. In other words, why do we care that the protagonist is looking for the original hand written version of The Inferno? It's worth a lot of money, but beyond that, the stakes need to be higher than just finding a treasure. When there is a lot to gain by finding something or discovering a secret, then you know you are reading a great story.
March 21, 2019
Now this was a good read. This author puts words to paper in a way that stears you into a ride of excitement and mystery. The beginning was a bit of a shock, almost didn't continue but a couple more pages and I was on my way to an adventure. Really liked this book and will read others by this author. He knows how to build a story and keeps it going. This is one most people will enjoy reading.
October 7, 2018
Intricacy thuggery m just on hhf ghost j Cole n amount hmm
Uhh m 4th. Nun join minimum wages huh what
In n mouth t wallow j minimum and keep your fingers o wallow i o video for your
I'm sorry that happened at least,which will make sure they would never
Uhh m 4th. Nun join minimum wages huh what
In n mouth t wallow j minimum and keep your fingers o wallow i o video for your
I'm sorry that happened at least,which will make sure they would never
October 24, 2018
Relatively boring
Interesting concept but poorly written. If it had been a novel, rather than a short novella, I would not have finished it. As it stands, this was my first and last book by Becker.
Interesting concept but poorly written. If it had been a novel, rather than a short novella, I would not have finished it. As it stands, this was my first and last book by Becker.
March 23, 2019
Great read!
My favorite genre of books have mystery, intrigue, puzzles to solve and a quest for a priceless artifact. This novella has only 134 pages but it has everything I love in a great read. I might just have found a new author for my favorites list!
My favorite genre of books have mystery, intrigue, puzzles to solve and a quest for a priceless artifact. This novella has only 134 pages but it has everything I love in a great read. I might just have found a new author for my favorites list!
November 5, 2024
A short thriller about the search for a lost treasure in present day Florence. I liked it but I was honestly startled by what the two cops investigating the crimes did in the end. That kinda, I don't know, rubbed me wrong?
December 19, 2018
Not paradise but not purgatory either
It was good. Fast paced. The plot could use a little more depth. Mix of fact and fiction. Good .99 cent read
It was good. Fast paced. The plot could use a little more depth. Mix of fact and fiction. Good .99 cent read
March 30, 2019
Entirely readable
The detectives Becker has produced are believably true, flawed and persistent. The "bad guys" are as they should be ruthlessly severe. An excellent tale.
The detectives Becker has produced are believably true, flawed and persistent. The "bad guys" are as they should be ruthlessly severe. An excellent tale.
July 1, 2019
I enjoyed reading about Dante even though several centuries have passed since he walked Italian cities. It’s a mystery with a good ending for the good guys.
July 17, 2019
Really enjoyed this book going to read more by this author
August 12, 2019
Dan Brown's Inferno was a better thriller set in Florence and also centered around Dante. The plot of Becker's book seemed too easily worked out. I didn't much like the resolution.
September 18, 2019
Lynnie
Very great exciting book, omg, from beginning to the end. What an ending, so so surprising. Will not give it away, you are gonna have to read it yourself to see. 😱😁
Very great exciting book, omg, from beginning to the end. What an ending, so so surprising. Will not give it away, you are gonna have to read it yourself to see. 😱😁
February 5, 2021
I enjoyed this book . The first I’ve read from this author & I’m looking forward to my next book of his .
April 9, 2023
Kind of dry and hard to follow.
April 17, 2013
The Dante Conspiracy is a traditional thriller reminisce of Dan Brown or Clive Cussler. A man is found dead and tortured in a barn, but there seems to be no reason for his death. All linked to Dante, the famous poet, the police race to figure out a hidden code in order to uncover a secret and catch the murderers before they get there first. But there may, in fact, be more than one person after Dante’s secret. Kasey writes well, the plot twists and turns and it kept me reading. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read which keeps you guessing as to what ‘Dante’s secret’ really is. I highly recommend it.
Read
April 26, 2013This is a novella-length thriller set in Italy, involving the hunt for an original manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy. Although I really didn't like the torture scenes at the beginning, which I found unnecessarily graphic, I thought the basic storyline was good; it moved along at an exciting pace and I enjoyed the way the clues in the verses were deciphered to solve the mystery. A perfect "sunlounger" read!
June 22, 2013
The book was a lot like a Dan Brown novel. The plot was well worked out and an engrossing read. Read the book in about 8 hours. I like the genre of historical thrillers and find information I didn't already know about an era and time gone by.
June 7, 2019
First time I've. read James Becker and not fond of novello' s. I always feel the story is unfinished.. Don't know how long this gentleman has been writing. So there's maybe some hope of improvement in suspense and intrigue.
May 20, 2013
Short, sharp and enjoyable although novella would better describe the book and the questionable morals of the two lead characters is refreshing and surprising.
July 15, 2013
A short book, gruesome at the start but then settled down into a good crime mystery.
April 19, 2013
Fast, slick thriller. Bit short but good if you are looking for something to pass a few hours.
April 29, 2013
Fast read, not much of an ending though.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews