You can call Lucas Corso the Sam Spade of the antiquarian business. He’s sly and resourceful, and he lives a life most bibliophiles would envy. Though he’s no stranger to breaking hearts or even breaking clients’ bank accounts. Serving as a mercenary to those elite enough to afford him, Corso sniffs out and hunts down the very finest of his clients’ desires: ultra-rare and valuable books.

While at work authenticating an Alexandre Dumas manuscript, Corso is summoned at the behest of a wealthy client in Toledo, Spain. There, he discovers his next foray: track down two copies of a demonology text called The Nine Doors and verify their authenticity against his client’s alleged forgery.

With his client’s copy in hand, Corso shuffles off to Madrid, hoping to glean intel on his forgery. Then, he swoops into Lisbon where the search for the first of its two siblings begins. But it doesn’t take long before he suspects a tail. Being nearly run off the road is a good indication of it. And the coincidences—including book burning and rigor mortis—follow him with each new destination and detail revealed.

The deeper Corso digs, the more he becomes embroiled in the devil’s handiwork and the dark underworld of idol worship. It’s a dangerous game of life and death, where the truth is stranger than fiction. The Club Dumas is a multi-layered and nuanced narrative that is an eclectic mix of mystery, occult, and murder. It is filled with references to Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Poe, and Doyle.