Devil's Lair follows a quartet through Hell to find and retrieve the Holy Grail to bring the world back from the brink of destruction. They are an unlikely group. Marco da Roma, the last of the Knights Templar, but has no recollection of who he is. William of Ockham, an English friar who has been defrocked. Giovanni Boccaccio, a poet and an expert on Dante. And finally Nadja, an epileptic with the gift of prophesy. It is her dreams that have led this group on their quest to find the Grail and save mankind. Each of them will need to face and conquer their own demons to push back the coming Apocalypse.
The depth to which the author goes to describe the characters is impressive. Since they are so integral to the plot, he has spent time fleshing each of them out. Giving them a story and giving the reader insight to understand who they are and what motivates them on this impossible quest. The added bonus of descending through Dante's Hell made it that much more enjoyable. While it is based loosely on Dante's vision, it gives readers who aren't quite as ambitious as Giovanni a chance to learn more about what Dante saw in his vision of Hell.
The level of detail as you follow the group on their journey was breathtaking. It was very easy to immerse myself in the time and place. You could feel the despair as they moved from place to place and watched as pestilence and plague destroyed everything in its wake. As they entered the Sybil's cave and began their descent, you had a real sense of foreboding and from the minute they entered the cave until the very end, I couldn't put it down. Hell is a very scary and very tempting place. Who wouldn't want to go and talk to Plato, Icarus, Orpheus, Morgan Le Fay and Mordred? The people they meet and the trials they go through during their descent was quite a thrill ride.
From beginning to end it was an enjoyable story. Full of colorful and familiar characters. Many of them were very real historical figures that many readers may already be familiar with. The story, while fantastical, is made very believable. It's easy to empathize and even sympathize with many of the characters introduced throughout the tale.
My only gripe is due to the lack of Latin translation. Unfortunately many readers have never studied Latin and may find the presence of many long and unexplained phrases through the book a bit daunting. There were also many archaic words used and I did find myself stopping from time to time to look them up. Some weren't even in my Kindle's dictionary, I had to use other sources. But the biggest distraction came from the lack of Latin translation. If there had been footnotes or a glossary that explained the passages, I could have given this book 5 stars.
Devil's Lair on Amazon.com
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