By Pam Walatka

Fathers turn into superheroes when it comes to protecting their daughters - that’s the theme of “The Tenth Circle” (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2006) by best-selling author Jodi Picoult.

Scenes from Dante’s “Inferno” recur throughout the book. “The Inferno” is about the nine circles of hell, each reserved for a different type of sinner. In Picoult’s book, the tenth circle is for an additional sin: “If the worst sin of all was betraying others, then what about people who lied to themselves?”

In Picoult’s novel, Daniel Stone, a comic book artist, grew up tough in the wilds of Alaska but reinvented himself to become a mild-mannered, devoted father living in Maine and married to a college professor who teaches “The Divine Comedy,” the first part of which is “Inferno.” Daniel works at home and takes primary responsibility for raising their only child, Trixie, who, at 14, tells him she has been date-raped.

Dad sheds his acquired civility and wreaks revenge on the perpetrator.

“She had been under the impression that her dad was of the typical suburban genus and species: the kind of guy who … read the sports section before the others, the type of father who was gentle enough to hold a monarch butterfly between his cupped palms so that Trixie could count the black spots on its wings. But that easygoing man would never have been capable of punching Jason repeatedly, even as Jason was bleeding and begging him to stop. … Trixie decided the answer must be in the part of her father’s life that he never wanted to share. Maybe Daniel Stone had been a whole different person, one who vanished just as Trixie arrived. She wondered if that was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.”

This is a well-crafted book. Picoult writes well and is young enough to paint a believable picture of today’s youth. She also consulted with current teenagers. Her account of the party scene is startling, more than I wanted to know. One of Picoult’s themes is that parents shield themselves from some obvious truths.

What’s really new here is that Picoult interspaces her chapters with chapters from a graphic novel, showing how Daniel would have told his story. It’s fabulous. The dad shape-shifts into The Immortal Wildclaw. The excellent illustrations are by Dustin Weaver, whom Picoult credits with drawing the soul of the book.

“The Tenth Circle” is available at Main Street Cafe & Books, 134 Main St., Los Altos.