The geographer is al-Idrisi to use his short title, best known for his time in
the Sicilian court of Roger II. The book has two parts, one the present day
mystery thriller set in a small New England town and the other the story of and description of the artefacts that make up the'library'. How erudite and
correct the latter may be is beyond me but both parts held my attention
and the cover reference to 'The Rule of Four' is well justified though the latter
is rather the better of the two. Some stretches of co-incidence and the
likelihood of a 30 plus good-looking female teacher bedding a somewhat
callow reporter near enough 10 years younger made one wonder but an
enjoyable read overall.