The Lost Symbol

After the phenomenal commercial success of 'The Da Vinci Code', Dan Brown was always going to be hard-pressed to deliver. And while Brown fans the world over have stampeded into book stores and copies are flying off the shelves, I'm not so sure he did deliver. In a literary sense, at least.

If it ain't broke...

The first thing you must realise about 'The Lost Symbol' is that it's basically a clone of the previous two novels. The only reason it works is because it sticks to a formula his fans love. I guess that's sort of a 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality although, if he continues in this vein, Brown runs the risk of growing stale.

Professor Robert Langdon rushes off to find what is believed to be a long-lost mystic treasure, although he is skeptical of its existence. (You would think after the whole thing with the Holy Grail he would have started to believe that anything is possible). As ever he must race to discover this treasure before the freakish villain (this one not an albino, but actually covered in tattoos) kills one of his closest friends and reveals potentially explosive secrets to the world. On the way, Langdon must decipher layers of complex codes and interpret symbols in some of the world's greatest works of art. He is accompanied by a startlingly intelligent woman who may or may not be in love with him (he seems to abandon his previous novels' heroines without even a backward glance or a carefully rehearsed voicemail). Oh, and if he doesn't find what he's looking for, it'll be the end of the line for the Indiana Jones of the symbology department.

Instead of Rome or the Vatican, this time Langdon must cross Washington DC in order to find a relic which is hidden by the ever-fascinating Freemasons. It's a masterstroke on Brown's part: Masons are still active across the globe, and there are literally hundreds of conspiracies surrounding this group which hides its secrets in plain sight. People are interested — and will be captivated by how deeply saturated America's history is with Masonry.

What science?

One of the saving graces of Brown's work is that he just knows so much. I find the novels educational. I love the way he can bring something as dull sounding as noetic science — the study of thoughts, and the power they have over the physical world — and fit it beautifully with one of the book's main concerns: the power of collective thought and the human mind. I love the discussions and interpretations of symbols in paintings, statues, buildings and streets. I love the alternate take on history, and I take guilty pleasure in being allowed to be swept off my feet into crazy theories and conspiracies.

Washington DC, despite being much younger than its European cousins, is no different. The sheer volume of Masonic architecture and design in Washington is staggering, and I'm sure avid readers will be booking their tickets to the Capitol to revisit some of the sites described — although they surely won't be able to recreate the dramas Langdon seems to experience whenever he leaves home.