Fiction Addict

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Doubleday

Publication date: September 15th, 2009

Reviewed by Jeremy Taylor

In his follow-up to the mega-best-selling The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown has produced what is essentially a love letter to the Masonic Order combined with a humanistic New Age manifesto, thinly disguised as a genuinely entertaining ticking-clock thriller.

When Robert Langdon arrives in Washington to deliver an address at an awards dinner at the urgent request of his friend and mentor Peter Solomon, he discovers he has been duped; not only is there no dinner, but Peter has been kidnapped, and Langdon’s presence in the capital is not to deliver a speech but to assist the kidnapper in decoding a series of Masonic codes supposedly leading to a cache of hidden wisdom. As Langdon deciphers layer after layer of an increasingly complex code, he must draw upon his vast but incomplete knowledge of Masonic lore in hopes of saving his friend’s life before it’s too late. Working with him are the director of the CIA’s Security Office, who insists that what Langdon is about to uncover is somehow related to national security, and Peter’s sister, a beautiful and brilliant noetic scientist on the verge of discovering a tangible link between human thoughts and material reality, including the existence of the soul.

The Lost Symbol is every bit as readable as The Da Vinci Code while even more intense and possibly more controversial. The writing is engaging, the characters are rich and well-supplied with interesting back-stories, and the action is practically nonstop. Brown clearly undertook a monumental research project in preparation for writing; readers are inundated with a wealth of information about Masons, noetic science, and New Age mysticism, though as in Brown’s previous books the line between fact and fiction is rather blurry at times. The book takes place almost entirely in Washington, D.C., and readers will enjoy experiencing the buildings, symbols, and myths of the U.S. capital from a new perspective.

Unsurprisingly, traditional Christianity (along with Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam) is portrayed as at best backward and uninformed and at worst downright deceptive. Masons, on the other hand, are the enlightened protectors of sacred knowledge, and those who embrace the concept that God is within us all are on the path to true fulfillment. Brown’s treatment of the Masonic Order is unequivocally positive, although his descriptions of Masonic rituals paint them in an undeniably sinister light even as he defends their motives. The book contains no sexual content and minimal foul language, but the stark evil of the villain along with depictions of ritual sacrifice, bizarre ceremonies, and sadistic torture and murder make the story much darker than either of the two previous books in the series.

The pace lags a bit toward the end as Brown lapses into preacher mode, working his characters into a frenzy of pseudo-spiritualism that contributes little other than to make one wish the book had ended a few chapters earlier. Nevertheless, as an example of how to communicate what could have been pedantic and esoteric information in a thoroughly engaging way, The Lost Symbol succeeds brilliantly.