THE DANTE GAME

Langton, a charter member in the charming-digressions club, here sends series sleuth Homer Kelly (Murder at the Gardner, etc.) off to tutor at the ramshackle Villa L'Ombrellino, in Florence, where the eavesdropping maid, her lover (the gardener), and a pesky student voyeur are soon dispatched; then the beautiful Julia is kidnapped, and her silently lovelorn swain, Professor Zibo, is determined to get her back. Meanwhile, Michelangelo's compass is stolen, as is a relic of the Cross, and plans are afoot to assassinate li Papa on his visit to Florence on Easter morning (disgruntled drug traffickers at work; il Papa's anti-drug campaign is working too well!). Who is committing all these crimes and leaving references to Dante at the crime scenes? The solution is far-fetched, but the side trips in getting there are wonderful—including Langton's pokes at reconstructionist nuns, and her guided tour of Florence through Dante's eyes. Cerebral and literate, then, with a wacky disregard for conventional thinking and detecting.