Hold onto your tweed jackets and sensible loafers, symbol enthusiasts! Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” is back with America’s favorite academic action hero, Robert Langdon!
Dan Brown returns with his third installment of the “Watch This Professor Run Around Famous Buildings” series, and this time our favorite symbologist is tearing through Washington D.C. faster than a tourist with a map and comfortable shoes!
“The Lost Symbol” delivers exactly what Dan Brown fans crave: historical conspiracies, secret societies, and enough plot twists to give you whiplash. Our hero Robert Langdon is back, trading in European cathedrals for American landmarks as he chases clues through the Capitol Building and beyond. When his mentor is kidnapped by a tattooed villain who looks like he wandered off the set of a very scholarly horror movie, Langdon must crack the Masonic code before it’s too late!
The treasure hunt aspect is absolutely brilliant – Brown knows how to make dusty old symbols feel like the most exciting things on earth. One minute you’re learning about architectural history, the next you’re breathlessly turning pages to find out if Langdon will solve the puzzle before someone dies horribly. It’s like “National Treasure” but with a higher IQ and fewer Nicolas Cage freakouts.
The characters are engaging as always, especially the villainous Mal’akh, who manages to be both terrifying and weirdly fascinating. And Katherine Solomon’s research adds a nice scientific angle to all the historical hocus-pocus.
However; and here’s where I dock a star, this book could have used a fierce editor with a red pen and no mercy. At times, “The Lost Symbol” feels longer than the actual history of Freemasonry. Brown has a tendency to explain things… and then explain them again… and then remind you about that explanation later… just in case you missed the first two times. About 100 pages could have been trimmed without losing anything essential.
While “Angels & Demons” and “The Da Vinci Code” remain my five star favorites in the series (those books were tighter than the security at the Vatican!), “The Lost Symbol” is still a worthy addition to the Langdon universe. It’s like your favorite band’s third album; not quite as revolutionary as their breakthrough hits, but still delivering the sound you love.
So grab this book, settle in, and prepare to learn more about Masonic history than you ever thought possible! Just maybe set aside a little extra reading time; this symbol hunt takes the scenic route.
Leave a Reply