The Rule of Four

**“One part *The Da Vinci Code,* one part *The Name of the Rose* and one part *A Separate Peace *. . . a smart, swift, multitextured tale that both entertains and informs.”—*San Francisco Chronicle***

***NEW YORK TIMES *BESTSELLER**

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Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two friends are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the *Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, *a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries. 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 a vital clue is unearthed: a long-lost diary that may prove to be the key to deciphering the ancient text. But when a longtime student of the book is murdered just hours later, a chilling cycle of deaths and revelations begins—one that will force Tom and Paul into a fiery drama, spun from a book whose power and meaning have long been misunderstood.

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Dustin Thomason's *12.21.*

**“Profoundly erudite . . . the ultimate puzzle-book.”—*The New York Times Book Review

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