The Ninth Circle

British university student Bell's impressive debut is a mature literary theological mystery with a satisfyingly twisty thriller conclusion. Waking up covered in blood and missing his memories, Gabriel Antaeus learns his name from the lease on his Budapest apartment and starts keeping a journal for fear of forgetting everything again. As he encounters photographs hidden in books and disturbingly supernatural dreams, Gabriel begins to doubt the trustworthiness of his only friend, fellow expatriate Zadkiel Stephomi. Gabriel soon finds his paternal instincts awakened by Casey, his pregnant teenage neighbor, and he begins to fear that much more than his life or hers may hang in the balance. Bell deftly weaves Judeo-Christian myth and Dante's Divine Comedy into a compelling genre mashup with glimmers of Gaiman, Blish and Ludlum, unfolding the mystery in teasingly intriguing bits that will keep pages turning. (Nov.)