The premise of Devil's Lair is that Dante's account of his travels through Hell in Inferno was basically a true story. Now, the devil has seized the holy grail, and its absence on earth is bringing about the End of Days as the Black Death spreads across Europe in 1349 A.D. A quartet of pilgrims lead by William of Ockham, the famous (and historical) friar and philosopher, undertakes a quest to find the gateway to Hell and retrieve the grail. With him are Nadja, a young German woman accused of witchcraft because she was born with the power to see the future, and Giovanni Boccaccio, the famous (and historical) Italian poet who is an expert on Dante and is expected to guide them through the underworld. The fourth member of their party is Marco da Roma, a former Knight Templar who they find left for dead on a battlefield, suffering from a serious bout of amnesia.

The first part of the story, and frankly my favorite part of the novel, takes place in Italy, where the pilgrims are trying to get to Avenrus, a gateway to the underworld according to Virgil in the Aeneid. The problem is that Marco has no intention of joining them, and this provides the conflict for the first half of the story. The pilgrims' travels through Italy take them to Rome and Padua, the home of Petrarch, the most famous poet of the time, who possesses an artifact the pilgrims will need if they're to survive a journey through Hell. I found the scenes set in medieval Italy to be well-crafted, and they anchored what otherwise could have been a purely fantasy tale to a real and important period of history.

The second half of the story takes place in the nine circles of Hell, a setting based literally on Dante's Inferno, complete with all of its monstrous denizens. There are a number of exciting scenes in the underworld, but in between these, the story slows down for scenes where each of the main characters learns something about themselves and their past. At times, this felt like reading a condensed version of Dante's epic poem, but the author pulls it off and the ending contains enough of a twist to make the whole journey worthwhile.
The premise of Devil's Lair is that Dante's account of his travels through Hell in Inferno was basically a true story. Now, the devil has seized the holy grail, and its absence on earth is bringing about the End of Days as the Black Death spreads across Europe in 1349 A. D. A quartet of pilgrims lead by William of Ockham, the famous (and historical) friar and philosopher, undertakes a quest to find the gateway to Hell and retrieve the grail. With him are Nadja, a young German woman accused of witchcraft because she was born with the power to see the future, and Giovanni Boccaccio, the famous (and historical) Italian poet who is an expert on Dante and is expected to guide them through the underworld. The fourth member of their party is Marco da Roma, a former Knight Templar who they find left for dead on a battlefield, suffering from a serious bout of amnesia. The first part of the story, and frankly my favorite part of the novel, takes place in Italy, where the pilgrims are trying to get to Avenrus, a gateway to the underworld according to Virgil in the Aeneid. The problem is that Marco has no intention of joining them, and this provides the conflict for the first half of the story. The pilgrims' travels through Italy take them to Rome and Padua, the home of Petrarch, the most famous poet of the time, who possesses an artifact the pilgrims will need if they're to survive a journey through Hell. I found the scenes set in medieval Italy to be well-crafted, and they anchored what otherwise could have been a purely fantasy tale to a real and important period of history. The second half of the story takes place in the nine circles of Hell, a setting based literally on Dante's Inferno, complete with all of its monstrous denizens. There are a number of exciting scenes in the underworld, but in between these, the story slows down for scenes where each of the main characters learns something about themselves and their past. At times, this felt like reading a condensed version of Dante's epic poem, but the author pulls it off and the ending contains enough of a twist to make the whole journey worthwhile.