In all fairness, the locked room mystery is only a small part of this expansive postmodern novel. But Eco never disappoints, and there are many riches in these pages beyond the tale of an impossible crime. Baudolino of Alessandria, a traveling man of adventure from the 13th century, tells of his exploits, which somehow incorporate every conflict and controversy of his day. Along the way, the death of Emperor Frederick is related as a locked room mystery. At one juncture, an exasperated character declares: “Human folly has imagined horrific crimes, from Cain on, but no human mind has ever been so twisted as to imagine a crime in a locked room.”
