"The Name of the Rose " is a medieval murder mystery by author Umberto Eco. The paperback copy is 517 pages long and retails for $10.85 while the Kindle e-version is a 896 Kb download that retails for $3.28 at the time of writing this review.SPOILERSThe story is set in the 1327... William of Baskerville, a former grand inquisitor, has been called to a remote abbey in the north of Italy to investigate some rumors of heresy. However, a recent mysterious death sidetracks is original mission, and leads to many new and disturbing findings. The results are an investigation what will shake the Abbey to its very foundations and will affect nearly everyone associated with this Holy place of worship.With him is a young boy by the name of Adso, a monk in training, who also acts as his scribe. Their investigations meet obstacle after obstacle, but eventually enough information is gleaned between murders, to make our sleuths aware that the off-limits library seems to hold the answers to the ever increasing number of questions.END SPOILERSImpressions:The story, when it was able to stay on focus, was great...interesting, tense and even at times, harrowing. Dark recesses visible only by the ambient lighting from candles or oil lamps, affairs that were both secretive and illicit, clandestine meetings...all gave this book high marks for intrigue and maintaining the readers interest.But...as good as the main tale was, unfortunately there were long and drawn out segments that dealt with the religious ideology of the time. Differences in religious views that prevailed in neighboring areas of Italy, France and Germany in the early 1300s, resulted in the formation of several separate orders of Monks... each firmly entrenched into the thinking that their 'religious perceptions' were the only correct version.To illustrate some of the absurdity, two topic of great and prolonged discussion in this book were the interpretations of the 'vows of poverty' and whether Jesus ever laughed. Hard to believe that such insignificant sounding topics could dominate the religious politics of the day. And you had to be careful who you talked to, because your point of view could label you a heretic is the wrong circles.I'm not a historian, but if accurate, the detail in reciting some of the religious thinking of that era and the thousand years before it was truly impressive.Because of the rarity of books in that age (most were painstakingly copied by hand) most information of the millennium before the time of this story, was passed down by word of mouth or by fragile crumbling parchments. Not surprising then that accounts of events could change dramatically with the adding or dropping of an important word or phrase here or there. It also depended on the beliefs of the person telling these old accounts...adding a bit of personal 'color' to the history being related.Eco's book makes it perfectly clear that people of this era lived in a culture of ignorance, illiteracy, superstition and most of all, fear.In addition the book had a couple good maps at the beginning giving the layout of the Abbey, and one very informative map of the complicated series of rooms and hallways of the mysterious library.Conclusion:I loved this tale when it stayed on course with the story.The latter part of the book is somewhat different than what I remember from the movie.There is no questioning Eco's ability to write a great tale that can captivate a readers attention. That being said he also can drift off the subject at hand for prolong periods...side stories that although related to the story, have little to do with the actual substance of the plot. The number and length of these 'distractions' added significantly to the length of this book and to be honest had me skimming some of these sections.As it is...4 Stars (would have been an easy 5 if not for the 'diversions')Ray Nicholson