THE RULE OF FOUR

This debut novel is written in the first person and in present tense, almost as if Caldwell and Thomason had an audio narration in mind. Unfortunately, their cerebral treasure hunt is dense with references to Renaissance art, arcane literature, complex riddles and 500-year-old events that are almost impossible to comprehend by ear; think Bonfire of the Vanities by Girolamo Savonarola, instead of Tom Wolfe. Not that reader Hamilton doesn't provide some assistance. He does an admirable job of conveying the youthful exuberance and intensity of the novel's narrator, Princeton senior Tom Sullivan, while breezing through some pretty tough tongue-twisters, including the oft-mentioned 15th-century manuscript at the heart of this intellectual suspense tale, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Still, unless listeners opt to ignore the esoterica and settle for a no-frills tale of two brainy college pals obsessed with an ancient tome and its coded secret of buried treasure, they may find themselves having to make annoyingly frequent stops, backups and replays before the archaeological, etymological, historical and religious facts register in a meaningful way. Simultaneous release with the Dial hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 15). (May)