El Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Lucas Corso is a book detective, a middle-aged mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found dead, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named for a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris on the killer's trail in this twisty intellectual romp through the book world.

My Thoughts

I usually like books that talk about books and El Club Dumas definitely fits that category.

 

I had never read anything by Arturo Pérez-Reverte but, fortunately, this book was a great one to start with his works. I really liked the premise and the mystery if seemed to offer; it just came across as one of those books that would really keep me hooked on it until the very end. However, at first, I had some concerns about this book because even though the story seemed quite interesting, I was afraid the narrative would be a bit dry or just not that appealing, but luckily that wasn’t the case and I was able to get into it really quickly. 

One of the best things about this book was how the author incorporated Alexandre Dumas’ work on the story, especially through the references and similarities between some of his characters with the ones from The Three Musketeers.

As for the characters, even though Corso was interesting and there was a lot of mystery about him, I didn’t feel particularly connected with any of them. They were interesting but not that relatable. However, I liked how passionate most of them were about rare books – especially about demonology and Alexandre Dumas’s work – and how they had dedicated their lives to them – a fascination that, to some of them, had become a true obsession.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I feel that I’ve learned something about old books but also about Alxandre Dumas’ life and work. Nonetheless, I feel that if I had already read The Three Musketeers I would’ve gotten a bit more from the story of El Club Dumas; I don’t think it would have been essential to read it in order to understand the story but it might have made a little difference, especially because some of the characters created by Pérez-Reverte seemed to have taken so much from the ones from The Three Musketeers. Fortunately I already have the book and I’ll probably pick it up soon, so I’ll be able to tell if it would have made a big difference or not.

An awesome book, with a lot of mystery, great dialogues and for fans of Alexandre Dumas’ work I think this book is a must read. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.