By Annette Cinelli

December is here, so it’s time to deck the halls and start in on your holiday gift list! While you are out shopping for presents, swing by your local bookstore and pick up Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol. It’s the perfect book to read in a coffee shop while sipping a peppermint latte or snuggled up at home watching the snow. If you are one of the couple of million people who has already bought (and raved about!) the book, then buy it for a friend!

Dan Brown’s latest novel features Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, who, having struggled with the mysterious and ancient Illuminati in Rome during a tumultuous papal conclave (in Angles & Demons) and investigated the murder of a prominent Louvre museum curator by following a series of clues and riddles (in The da Vinci Code), is now in Washington, DC racing yet again to save…someone. This time it is his friend and mentor Peter Solomon, a Mason of the highest order who has been kidnapped by a madman.

The madman is Mal’akh, a man who has “feet tattooed with the scales and talons of a hawk…muscular legs…tattooed as carved pillars…[and a chest] emblazoned with the double-headed phoenix.” The rest of him is covered with other symbols and he disguises these markings with make-up when ventures out in public, as he does to leave the severed hand of Peter Solomon as a signal to Robert about, no pun intended, his task at hand.

Robert, thinking he has been called to DC to give a speech, discovers that the invitation is really a ploy to get him to Washington to unlock an ancient portal which contains hidden Masonic knowledge.

Also affected by Peter’s disappearance is his sister, Katherine Solomon, a scientist blurring the line between myth and science with her studies in the field of Noetic science. In the book, Noetic science is described as having the belief that humans have “barely scratched the surface of our mental and spiritual capabilities.” The results of her studies promise to usher in a new Renaissance and period of enlightenment.

Katherine also serves somewhat as Robert’s love interest, though I use that term loosely. While Brown does mystery and suspense well, sex and romance are clearly not his forte and, as in his other Langdon books, there is only mild flirtation between the two.  Another thing lacking in his book is character development; many of the characters, most notably Mal’akh, are somewhat one-dimensional.

What Brown is good at is riddles, suspense, and unexpected twists and turns. The Lost Symbol is a book you’ll want to read in one sitting, though you may throw it down as one of my friends did during an intense scene she couldn’t believe had just happened. The Lost Symbol has all the elements that were favorites in The Da Vinci Code ~ convoluted clues, a mysterious society, interesting and funny flashbacks to symbology lessons Langdon has taught, and chapter endings that leave you without any choice but to keep reading, even if it is pushing midnight!

Another cool aspect of the book is that it takes place in Washington, DC, so if you are left at the end wanting to discover the mysteries of DC for yourself, make it your New Year’s resolution to take a trip out there ~ it’s only a day’s drive and a few hours by plane. Unlike for the The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons tours offered overseas, you won’t even have to leave the country.

So whether it’s an early holiday present for yourself or a gift for a friend, be sure to pick up Dan Brown’s latest, The Lost Symbol.