A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy Group murder, as well as the secrets of the Renaissance prince collide within a labyrinth of betrayal, madness, and genius.

THE Guideline OF FOUR

Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. In the eve of graduation, two students certainly are a hairsbreadth from resolving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Famous for its hypnotic power over those that study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets — to Tom Sullivan, whose father was about The Rule of Four enthusiastic about the reserve, and Paul Harris, whose upcoming depends upon it. As the deadline looms, analysis has stalled — until a historical diary areas. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks also them: proof that the positioning of a concealed crypt continues to be ciphered within the pages from the obscure Renaissance text message.

Equipped with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre globe from the Hypnerotomachia — a world of ignored erudition, strange sexual appetites, and awful violence. And they begin to realize the magnitude of their breakthrough, Princeton’s snowy campus is normally rocked: a longtime college student of the publication can be murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the annals department.

An account of timeless intrigue, amazing scholarship, and great imaginative power, The Rule of Four may be the tale of a young man divided between the future’s promise and the past’s allure, led only by a friendly relationship and love.