lost symbolI’m going to try to phrase this properly.  Give me a second.  Okay, I admire and appreciate Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon novels more than I actually like them.  That makes sense, doesn’t it?  I admire the author for the research that goes into these things, because it is fascinating.  Something gets lost between thought and expression, though.

Oddly enough, for me, reading these books brings to mind Michael Crichton and Stephen King.  I think of Crichton because of the facts and science and history and such, except Crichton made learning much more fun.  I think of Stephen King because of what a former teacher once said regarding late period King (he may have been quoting someone, I’m not sure):  “King tends to write horror for housewives.”  Brown writes sensational fiction for housewives and highbrows, those people who would look down their noses at Walter Gibson, Smith and Street, and Bill Gaines.  This is pulp for WASPs.

The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown’s first book since the mega-bestselling piece of crap, The Da Vinci Code (or as it translates to English The The Vinci Code).  Symbologist Robert Langdon is invited by his friend, and head Mason, Peter Solomon, to give a lecture on the symbols of Masonry.  Langdon accepts, only to arrive in Washington, D.C., to realize he’s been duped.  He also discovers Peter’s severed right hand (on a stick) sitting pretty in the Capitol Rotunda with the index finger pointing skyward, and all the fingers tattooed.

This, of course, is an ancient symbol, “Hand of the Mysteries”, and it’s an invitation to Langdon from a heavily tattooed madman named Mal’akh.  The ensuing mystery has him running across D.C. to stop a national crisis of cataclysmic events.  Helping Langdon on this go-’round are Noetic scientist Katherine Solomon (Peter’s sister), some high ranking Freemasons (including a blind reverend), and a no-nonsense Asian lady from the CIA.  They follow Robert Langdon, and the clues, through dark tunnels, secret passages, intricate puzzles, and a race against time.


All the little known trivia and hidden facts and secret histories are interesting, and if Brown had more of those thrown in with less of the homogenized thriller plot trappings, The Lost Symbol would be killer.  That goes for the rest of the Langdon books, as well.  But story wise, there are no big surprises; even the the revelation of the madman’s true identity could be seen by the blind reverend a hundred miles away.

I liked The Lost Symbol a great deal better than The Da Vinci Code, but not as much as Angels & Demons.  Interesting side note:  I’ve not seen the movie of A & D yet, but, having loathed the Code book, I actually thought the movie version was all right.

3 out of 5
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