Inferno : a Novel

The New York Times - Janet Maslin …Inferno puts the idea of a plague front and center, invoking the black plague, its casualty count and its culling effect on mankind. Mr. Brown is more serious than usual when he invokes Dante's dire warning: "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"…But the main emphasis here is hardly on gloom. It is on the prodigious research and love of trivia that inform Mr. Brown's stories…the ease with which he sets them in motion, the nifty tricks…and the cliffhangers…the gamesmanship…And finally there is the sense of play that saves Mr. Brown's books from ponderousness, even when he is waxing wise about some ancient mystery or architectural wonder.