Latest Brown: The Lost Symbol

I recently received Dan Brown’s latest offering as a Birthday Gift, with a 6 day read-and-give-it back rider attached. However, its testament to Dan Brown’s gripping story telling that I finished it with time to spare. The Lost Symbol is a classic Dan Brown, a fast paced, brainy thriller that owes its twists and turns as much to mysteries of history and science as to plot maneuvers. The novelty of Dan Brown’s latest presentation in the Robert Langdon series is that it combines two of his previously ventured genres- thrillers based on symbolology and science. Our beloved tweed clad superhero travails through the architectural labyrinths of Washington D.C. and unravels the mysteries of the Freemasons , unlocks ancient mysteries and survives a sensory deprivation chamber. Dan Brown introduces a fascinating new field of Noetic Scence, which tries to prove ancient spiritual theories of mind over matter with scientific evidence. This time its personal for Robert Langdon, his friend , mentor and a prominent Freemason Peter Solomon is abducted and the abductor wants Langdon to unravel the secret mysteries of the Freemason society. In this he is aided by Peter’s beautiful sister and brilliant Noetic scientist Kathleen Solomon. The villain of this piece is also a continuation of Brown's earlier themes of psychotic, driven and goal oriented bad men. The Lost Symbol is overshadowed by the sheer brilliance and explosive success of the Da Vinci code and Angels and Demons and falls woefully short in comparison. Many of his plot moves are lamentable predictable and in comparison to his previous offerings story line is rather weak. He lets off the Freemasons easy and there are no big revelation about the cult which even whisper controversy, unlike the Vatican and Knights Templar they get quite a sympathetic treatment. Don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed, all in all a good book to read on a rainy day