The Rule of Four

London: Arrow Books. Very Good+. 2005. Reprint; Eighth Printing. Paperback. Mass Market PB; 110 X 34 X 178 millimeters . Light reading creasing and shelf wear, paper lightly edge toned. ; Eighth printing of Arrow mass market edition, 2005. Nice tight , flat copy, no names inside. Cover design uncredited with photo courtesy of Getty Images. Heavy book and priced accordingly. ; 544 pages; Tom Sullivan, about to graduate from Princeton, is haunted by the violent death of his father, an academic who devoted his life to studying one of the rarest, most complex and most valuable books in the world. Coded in seven languages, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an intricate mathematical mystery and a tale of love and arcane brutality, has baffled scholars since its publication in 1499. Paul Harris, Tom's roommate, is similarly obsessed with deep personal reasons of his own for wanting to unveil the secrets the book hides. When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems the two friends have found the key to the mystery - but when a fellow researcher is murdered only hours later, the two friends suddenly find themselves in great danger. What they discover embedded in the text is a narrative detailing the passion of a Renaissance prince, a hidden crypt, and a secret worth dying to protect... .