The Rule of Four

Written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

Narrated by Josh Hamilton

A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, madness, and genius.
THE RULE OF FOUR
Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets -- to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline looms, research has stalled -- until an ancient diary surfaces. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text.
Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia -- a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department.
A tale of timeless intrigue, dazzling scholarship, and great imaginative power, The Rule of Four is the story of a young man divided between the future's promise and the past's allure, guided only by friendship and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: May 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9780743539388

Ian Caldwell

Ian Caldwell is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Fifth Gospel and (with Dustin Thomason) The Rule of Four, which sold nearly two million copies in North America and was translated into thirty-five languages. He lives in Virginia with his wife and children.

Reviews for The Rule of Four

[middleearthtraveller · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Totally overrated read. Predictable and not-so-thrilling.

[kevinjoseph_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you're looking for a mindless summer thriller, with two-page chapters, cookie cutter heroes and prose that goes down as easy as a People Magazine article, look elsewhere. But if your tastes in entertainment run more toward the cerebral, and you aren't put off by the idea of a genre-defying suspense novel that mixes the philosophical and romantic musings of an ivy-league narrator with the seemingly impenetrable mysteries of a five-century-year-old tome called the Hypnerotomachia, I recommend giving The Rule of Four a whirl.Set on the campus of Princeton between Good Friday and Easter, ROF chronicles the culmination of a grueling intellectual assault by two seniors on a Renaissance text that has stymied a host of literary geniuses coming before them, including the narrator's dead father. The code-breaking escapades of narrator Tom and his best friend Paul are cleverly interwoven with the coming-of-age concerns of their circle of friends on the cusp of graduation. This narrative structure allows the authors to explore themes of friendship, love, obsession, father figures, maturation and destiny in a way that resonates beautifully with the enigmatic Hypnerotomachia itself.The novel has its flaws. It employs lengthy narrative flashbacks that regularly interrupt the flow of the plot with back-story and exacerbate the authors' tendency to tell rather than show. The authors also go overboard in places with their literary allusions and academic trivia, as if they were trying to weave in every tidbit of their Great Books courses. And the climax succumbs to the obligatory thriller elements of over-the-top violence and mayhem, weakening its believability.Nonetheless this is an original suspense novel with some beautiful metaphors and philosophical passages that will linger with readers much longer than the chase scenes and ridiculous plot twists found in most of today's best selling thrillers.-Kevin Joseph, author of "The Champion Maker"

[jerry2book-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As others have said, this combines elements of the Name of the Rose, This Side of Paradise, and the DaVinci Code. The book is written in the first person which is always a difficult feat. Thomas, the main character, is a Midwesterner like Fitzgerald who goes to Princeton. Thomas's father had attempted to solve the riddle of a major literary work of the Italian Renaissance. He failed. At Princeton, Thomas finds that Paul, one of his three roommates, is attempting to solve the same mystery. Thomas is pulled into the search. The book is uneven but enjoyable none the less. If you like a Renaissance mystery, coming of age stories, and life in a major Ivy University like Princeton then you will like this book. Also, I think fans of the Name of the Rose will like this book.

[bookmindful · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good, entertaining narrative of a puzzle. It was a little less exciting and suspenseful than it could have been, maybe because it\'s not presented as a puzzle the reader can figure out. I never got the whole steam tunnels thing.

[dono421846 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like Dan Brown's novels, of which this book much resembles, the best parts concern the intellectual puzzles of the Hypnerotomachia itself. The character developments--the accounts of their motivations and personalities--are often unconvincing. The final chapters seem especially weak, but the pleasurable engagement of the earlier plot offers an overall positive diversion.

[joycepa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While not the first, the Da Vicni Code spawned any number of look-alikes in the ancient-secret-society, solve-the riddle-and-get-the prize genre. This riddle, however, is based on a 500 year old text, The Hypnerotomachia. Scattered throughout this seemingly deadly boring book are a series of clues that lead to? A Treasure. Like they all do.As usual, it isn?t the treasure at the end that is the point of such books, but the process by which the riddle is solved. Actually finding the treasure, whatever it is, is usually anticlimactic. This is particularly true of The Rule of Four.It?s quite a nice process that involves murder, of course, and academic politics at its usual worst. The whole puzzle is satisfying.What makes this interesting is that it has two authors and it?s very evident when one is writing and the other isn?t. However, that turns out not to be a problem?it works, because one author takes exposition, the other dialogue and action. It?s a fun exercise in two bright young guys looking at the success of The Da Vinci Code and seeing what they could come up with as imitation.But, no matter what the cover hype, this book simply is not as good as The Da Vinci Code. It?s a spin-off?and a good one. But where the characters in The Da Vinci Code were both interesting and believable, the ones in The Rule of Four fall flat. Brown had a terrific villain; the one in Rule of Four is pretty hum-drum. The writing also doesn?t compare with Brown?s; in Rule of Four, it?s adequate, at times good, but not anything you?ll remember. Brown is a much better writer.This might be a good book to borrow from the library, or buy if you run across a cheap copy at a garage sale, but I wouldn?t spend a lot of money on it.All in all, Dan Brown did it much better.

[heatherchoffman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Readers who enjoy puzzles, history, and mystery will enjoy this one. It is often compared to The Da Vinci Code, but the writing style and lack of predictability make it far more interesting. The story moves quickly and you probably won't be able to put it down (and if you are able to drop it, you'll spend your time thinking about what's going to happen next).

[whitebalcony · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

People have compared this to the Da Vinci Code but it's much less action-packed. This is more of a coming of age story about four boys in college, with a smattering of intrigue thrown in for kicks.

[whicker_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very good time. The Rule of Four carries suspense throughout while making you care about the characters. Excellent portrait of male friendship in a time of transition. Definitely at least one run through.

[altheaann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up because it was recommended for people who liked "The Name of the Rose." I wouldn't necessarily second that; I felt it was not very similar at all. However, it was a quite enjoyable literary mystery.
It has to do with four college seniors, roommates who are all studious, academic-career-oriented types. The narrator, Tom, had a father who devoted his life to the study of one book - the 15th-century manuscript called the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (an actual text, although I can't say how accurate the novel's depiction of it is). When Tom's father died, his work metaphorically passed on to Tom and his best friend, the overachieving orphan Paul. Paul's work on the book may very well be brilliant, genius-level stuff - but Tom fights to balance the obsession with the book with trying to maintain a normal relationship with his girlfriend - with great difficulty. It becomes especially hard to distance himself from the work when Paul makes some truly amazing discoveries of secret messages in the text, hinting at greater revelations to come - and when it seems there is a plot afoot to steal Paul's work, involving trusted members of the academic community. Gradually, the antique book and its secrets bring not just the two literary students, but their friends, into increasing danger.
The novel is notable for its extremely believable and realistic portrayal of campus life at Princeton (one of the authors is a graduate of that school), and for a very nice job of meshing the unraveling of both the literary mystery and the actual 'action' of the plot. It's a long book, but a very quick read.

[bookmarque · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am profoundly glad that I didn?t get this in hardcover. And that I bought it for $4 at Sam?s Club. Holy shit what a weird mash of things going on here. For one, the authors truly wished to showcase their knowledge of Princeton and it?s inner workings. They needed to go out of their way to show us they were on the inside of some pretty intimate workings of the school and its traditions. Yawn. And then there was the whole character of Paul and Tom. I highly doubt that Tom if given a choice between spending time with a girl, and spending time with a guy and a musty old book, would actually choose the latter. College boys are not this dedicated to scholarship. Especially on some dry tome that basically drove Tom?s father to obsession and death before even coming close to the meaning of it all. And Paul is worse; he doesn?t even have a token girlfriend to distract him from his thesis. A thesis as an undergrad? How weird. But he too is a driven scholar who has no social life and thinks he can crack the mystery that smarter men have failed to crack.Which brings me to the 3rd thing; why are these boys so light years ahead of their predecessors? It makes no sense that people with decades of learning into subjects not even broached by Paul and Tom should fail to unlock the secret of the book. Two kids with barely enough hormones between them to have a wet dream are the ones to unlock the visceral secrets of this ancient text?yeah right.The idea of a mystery within an otherwise strange but innocuous text is a good one. But using college kids as a way to solve it when many others have gone before is a stretch. And the ending being a map and directions to a centuries old cache of hidden art treasures that would have otherwise been burned by fanatics is a really odd mystery. Compounded by the fact that they cryptically show one boy signaling to the other via equally cryptic messages that he has found said cache and go join him yonder, well that?s just out of the tethers of reality. That and the fact that none of it seems to have decayed despite the lack of hermetic sealing technology.Bah.

[tangential1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really good read; not mentally taxing or anything, but still relatively suspenseful. I think the description on the cover from one of the reviewers sums it up best; it's a puzzle book. The story does that thing where it intertwines present action and past action. Most of the book is about the main characters solving this puzzle that is hidden in a very old book. No one has been able to figure it out for a very long time and they finally make a breakthrough (one of them is working on the book as his college thesis). The action actually kind of catches you off-guard because you get so wrapped up in the puzzle solving parts that when something actually happens (like someone getting hurt) it seems unreal, like it doesn't fit. But then thinking about it in actual chronological order, it does fit. The flow is odd like that. Thinking about it, though, the odd flow and the disconnect from reality and getting sucked into the puzzle is exactly what the characters are experiencing so it really works.Overall it was a very good read; refreshing.

[skraft001 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Really poorly written. Decided to get off the train wreck half way through -- other reviews indicate that was a good move. Could not engage with the characters, they all were very bland in their development. The premise was good, but not developed the way it could have been. Very obvious this is a first novel attempt.

[exvivre · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Where Do I Sign Up for a Refund?This book is the work of amateurs. Plot elements are laid bare with only superficial attempts at building suspense. The central quartet of characters are shallow and unendearing. This reads more like a freshman guide to Princeton than a mystery novel. The 'mystery' of the book is dull and predictable, and the 'climax' was reminiscent of bad sexual experiences - unfulfilling and making me happy it was over. Instead of buying this book, light a $20 bill on fire. It will save you from wasting time on this pathetic story and you can warm your hands with it.

[mswallack_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I decided to read The Rule of Four on the basis of numerous glowing reviews and favorable comparisons to The Da Vinci Code. If you are looking for a literary story of a college student searching for meaning in his life, then this may be the book that you are looking for. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed the puzzles and "historical secrets" of The Da Vinci Code, then you need to look elsewhere to get what you are looking for. I really disliked The Rule of Four for two reasons: First, it was written in a manner that screamed out to me, "Hey look at us, we know how to write in a literary style! Maybe we'll get great reviews!". Second, the promised puzzles and historical interest were barely puzzles at all (certainly not puzzles that the reader had a hope of trying to solve with the protagonists) and the historical interest was, actually, of very minor import. I finished this book only because I very rarely put a book down and because I kept hoping that it would get better. It didn't. Read something else. (By the way, if a "literary version" of IThe Da Vinci Code/i is really what you want, try wading through Umberto Eco's Foucoult's Pendulum; just don't say that I didn't warn you...)

[turtlesleap · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book offers more than you ever cared to know about the day-to-day details of life at Princeton, a bit of undergraduate romance, murder, mystery and a scholar's puzzle. The problem is that often the writers give more attention to the background than to the primary theme of the work. This is not a book I will retain in my library, nor would I particularly recommend it but the authors are worth watching for future efforts.

[majkia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A college student, whose father was an obsessed researcher, meets a would-be disciple of his father?s. Their frendship grows and both young men are drawn into the same obsession, trying to figure out an ancient book written in code. This book reminded me a lot of A.S. Byatt?s Possession. The same sense of nearly mad obsession, the same sense of needing to solve the puzzles and devote all of one?s time and energies to the mystery.I personally loved it, but can see why others might not. I?m all for puzzles, bibliomysteries and obsessions!

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The was an entertaining debut novel about finding a secret code within the text of an ancient rare book. The story isn't without it's flaws but overall is told so convincingly that it actually inspired me to do the research to find out exactly where the line between fact and fiction is drawn.

[mountie9_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While fascinating and I learned so much, I was a bit irritated at the layout of the story. It jumps around a lot in a jarring sort of way. Interesting characters and intriguing back story saves it though. Really more a tale of father and son and growing up than a Dan Brown style novel which is what it came across as in the synopsis.

[daptolibrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a tricky one for the end of the year. Some of us were not up to the task of unraveling the puzzle of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili! It may well have been the time of year, or, as someone suggested, the self-indulgence of the two authors. Either way, it was a struggle for most of our group to get through this scholarly mystery. Ann, who did enjoy the challenge, felt you needed a love of history and accumulating knowledge to get the most from this book, and she loved the ?mystery within the mystery? that ran throughout. Viti also found some value within its pages and the historical tidbits that were scattered through the story. But the overall opinion was that Rule of Four did not quite make the grade for a good novel. To much work required, tedious and characters that did not connect were among the majority of views. Would it have been different if we read this book at the beginning of the year? Probably not. Our book club has a well developed sense of what they like, and are not easily convinced otherwise. So it is on to a new year of reading, which gets everyone excited about what we will discover. Keep an eye on this blog for our latest reviews of 2013.

[miyurose_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book! I was a little skeptical, because there was a lot of buzz about this book, comparing it to The Da Vinci Code, but I was pleased with it. The only real comparison I saw was that it deals with art and such in the Renaissance. My only complaint is that they weren't real clear on some of the time transitions, and somewhere in the middle I lost track of the timeline. I wasn't sure if I was in the present or the past. But overall, quite interesting!

[gopfolk · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Decent plot - questionable endingThe Rule of Four was not all that I thought it would be...I enjoyed the basic plot and could see the Dan Brown type writing within but it lacked the staying power that Brown has. Without too much trouble you can see the ending of this novel from page 10. I was hoping that there would be more of a twist to the ending than there was. The book was easy to read with clear language and dialogue. An average reader could get through this book very quickly. Overall I would say you get what you see from this book. There are no "big surprises" that will keep you guessing

[mrshillreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. At times, I felt I wasn't smart enough to be reading this book; but, I stuck with it even if there were parts that I didn't understand at all. In the end, the feeling of being dumb left a bad taste in my mind and I couldn't say that I really liked the book.

[libgirl69 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Terrible. Skimmed read most of it.

[ashleysailvt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Eh....what can I say? It was ok. There wasn't anything captivating or elusive about it. I probably shouldn't even tag it as mystery. The enjoyable part was the main character's back story. The end was terrible. If you're bored and want to waste a few hours of your life, read it.

[adithyajones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting mystery about an ancient book, a puzzle which slowly unfolds. It is a good read but pacing is quite uneven with the prospect of losing interest in the story. Nevertheless a good read.

[amandaking_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book was okay. Most definitly capitilizing on the dan brown adventurous historian who uncovers a secret phenomenon. I was initially attracted to it because it is set in princeton, which isn't far from where I live. It was an unimpressive read, but a good summer 'fluff' read. I hate to say fluff, because that is usually connotated with smutty romances, but this is a book that I don't think you really have to think too much about while reading.

[francescadefreitas · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have a hard time not comparing book-within-a-book mysteries to The Name of the Rose. Such a comparison is usually unfavorable and unfair.So that aside, I did become interested in the mystery of this book, and a few silly action scenes aside, I enjoyed experiencing the main character's struggle against academic obsession.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Unusually, this book is written by two authors, both young grads who have been friends since school days. The cover blurb suggested something like The Name of the Rose crossed with Da Vinci Code, but this is a more conventional book, telling a story involving a group of final year college kids. The weak point is the poor attempt to describe relationships (wooden and not very believable) but there is a good story in there, and these guys show potential. Read August 2011.

[ukaissi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is about love, friendship, moving on, and striving to do what you like.