Just finished “The Lost Symbol” and have been snookered by Dan Brown once again. I loved “The DaVinci Code”, was reasonably amused by “Angels and Demons”, but The Lost Symbol (another of his Professor Robert Langdon, Symbologist at large novels) has shown that Brown has flogged this horse too many times. Its official – the horse is on its back, hooves flailing in the air and tongue hanging out.

The Location: Washington DC

The Subject: Free Masons (like that’s never been done before as a conspiracy novel)

The Quest: Mulling through the world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, yadda, yadda, yadda in 24 hours to prevent a kidnapped friend from being killed.

The Protagonists: Langdon and a shapely and a curvaceous Smithsonian scientist involved in ground breaking, yet highly esoteric, research. (Wow! What a change in storyline from DVC and A&Ds)

The Antagonists: Purely evil and using Langdon’s talents to uncover mysteries to assist them in dominating mankind (wow – again, what a shock)

The Science and History: The codes and enigmatic symbols are rather two dimensional and about as complex as a Sudoku puzzle. The stated Masonic history is specious at best.

The Ending: The biggest surprise about the climax and culmination of the novel is that you’ve just wasted $20.

The only saving grace is, like all Dan Brown novels, that you can finish it in a few hours.

Save your money and your brain cells.

Ouch

Fred