Review: Enough to take your breath away!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2012
When starting "Devil's Lair" by David Wisehart, the first paragraph caused me to pause and reflect upon the picture the author had painted.  It is 1349 A.D., "William of Ockham walked barefoot through the carnage.  Slaughtered knights and fallen horses festered on the battlefield.  A thousand naked corpses lay broken upon the earth, and in that multitude a few unlucky men survived, weltering in their own blood, crying out for God.  The fighting was over but the dying would go on for days". The vision is surreal, and I had to think about that for a few moments before moving on.The three travelers - a friar, William of Ockham, a poet, Giovanni Boccaccio, who is well versed on the works of Dante, and Nadja, a young, epileptic girl with a gift of prophesy, are looking for one surviving knight.  William carried a charcoal sketch to identify the face; Nadja had created this drawing from an earlier vision.  The survivor they seek from the prophesy, Marco da Roma, a former Knights Templar, supposedly knows where in hell the Holy Grail is located.  If they are able to steal it from the Devil, it will end the pestilence and plague on the planet which has already claimed half of the population.  Unfortunately, after Marco is found and eventually brought back to health, he has amnesia and doesn't even know who he is.David wrote this book using the language of the 14th century and made me feel like I was reading text from that era.  He uses Latin proverbs and sayings throughout the book which have no explanation, but don't take away from the story.  I learned to just scan over them without losing anything.  However, some of the verbiage made me glad that I was reading on my Kindle.The foursome travel throughout Italy looking for a relic that will help in their quest to take back the Holy Grail - a certain spear tip, said to have punctured the side of Christ while he was dying on the cross.  Once they have it, the special weapon is instrumental during their journey through hell.Giovanni was well-studied in Dante's works and used what he learned to guide the group through the nine rings of hell along the same route Dante had followed. Never having read Dante's Inferno, I was in awe of the author's descriptions of the various levels of hell and of the characters the pilgrims encounter during their quest for the Grail.  Frightening to say the least.This is another book you won't be able to put down - especially when the quest takes the pilgrims underground - this is the second half of the book.  Plan on staying up late!  Great read and enjoyed it immensely!  Highly recommended!John Podlaski, AuthorCherries - A Vietnam War Novel