Rule Of Four

An ivy league murder; a mysterious coded manuscript; and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide memorably in THE RULE OF FOUR -- a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship; high art and unimaginable treachery. It's Easter at Princeton. Seniors are scrambling to finish their theses. And two students; Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris; are a hair's breadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili--a renowned text attributed to an Italian nobleman; a work that has baffled scholars since its publication in 1499. For Tom; their research has been a link to his family's past -- and an obstacle to the woman he loves. For Paul; it has become an obsession; the very reason for living. But as their deadline looms; research has stalled -- until a long-lost diary surfaces with a vital clue. And when a fellow researcher is murdered just hours later; Tom and Paul realize that they are not the first to glimpse the Hypnerotomachia 's secrets. Suddenly the stakes are raised; and as the two friends sift through the codes and riddles at the heart of the text; they are beginnning to see the manuscript in a new light--not simply as a story of faith; eroticism and pedantry; but as a bizarre; coded mathematical maze. And as they come closer and closer to deciphering the final puzzle of a book that has shattered careers; friendships and families; they know that their own lives are in mortal danger. Because at least one person has been killed for knowing too much. And they know even more.