Robert Langdon is back with another mystery to solve. His good friend, the very wealthy philanthropist Peter Solomon, is hosting an event at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and his keynote speaker has fallen ill. Robert is asked to fill in at the last minute, and is flown by private jet to Washington, where he is soon to discover that his friend actually did not invite him, but he is in urgent need of his help. Because instead of a glitzy event attended by Washington’s elite, Robert arrives to discover Peter’s hand, sawn off and placed strategically beneath the Capitol’s dome, with symbols tattooed on the fingertips containing a message for him to decipher. Robert realizes that he has been manipulated by a very sick man with the resources and cunning necessary to bring him to D.C. on an impossible quest to locate The Lost Symbol, an fabled icon of Masonic mythology. If Robert doesn’t help this man find what he’s looking for, Peter will die. Then, to make the matter even more urgent and mystifying, he is greeted with the arrival of the Central Intelligence Agency’s top agent, who takes Robert into custody and claims that he must do as this sick man requests, or the entire nation’s security will be compromised.

This all seemed a little familiar. And that’s because I could have been reading The Da Vinci Code instead. The similarities are many. TDVC: Old friend of Langdon’s found dead in museum with cryptic message pointing to clues which sets our symbologist hero on a seemingly impossible quest. TLS: Old friend of Langdon’s hand is found in museum with cryptic message (literally) pointing to clues which sets our symbologist hero on a seemingly impossible quest. TDVC: The security of the entire world depends on Robert keeping sensitive information from coming to light. TLS: The security of the entire world depends on Robert keeping sensitive information from coming to light. TDVC: rich with historical information about Opus Dei and architectural and art history. TLS: rich with historical information about the Masons and architectural and art history. TDVC: contains complex code to break. TLS: contains complex code to break. TDVC: Robert is teamed up with beautiful, intelligent scientist who has access to critical information. TLS: Robert is teamed up with beautiful, intelligent scientist who has access to critical information. Both books feature villains who are not averse to murdering to get what they need to achieve a goal that is “bigger than us all” and who would die for their causes. Both books take place in the same amount of time — one long, thrilling night.

Yes, Brown reused his formula here, and when you consider how wildly successful The Da Vinci Code was, who can blame him? Does it detract from the story and make it less of a good read? A teeny bit, yes, but perhaps only to those of us who read a book to appreciate its writing as much as its story. But does it matter in the end? Not really. This is still a good book. I appreciated the history in it, and, like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons before it, I found myself wanting to stop at certain points as I read to go look up things on the Internet to see if Brown really was accurate in the information he presented. So while I did find the story formulaic, and a few of the characters to be underdeveloped and underused, I am still impressed with the effort that is present within the details. This was not a book that was put together in a hurry. In fact, this is a book that was long overdue for fans of Brown, especially following the success of The Da Vinci Code. Originally intended to be published in 2006 under the title The Solomon Key, this novel was pushed back so Brown could keep working on it (and probably due in part to his legal issues at the time). I can appreciate that time was taken to make the novel better, despite the pressure he no doubt felt to publish so quickly after the bestseller that was The Da Vinci Code.

I can’t say that this is his best work, but it’s still a good read and a page-turner. Thanks to Victor at Special Ops Media and Doubleday for the review copy. (more…)