Book Review: The Lost Symbol ★★★

I am a bit of a fan of Dan Brown, I know lots of people like to comment on the simplicity of the stories and how far fetched they are and basically sound off about them being not good literature, but I enjoy to read them, especially the Robert Langdon stories, so I was excited when the Lost Symbol was released.

It took me a while to get round to reading the book because although you can't see it in the picture above, it is a beast. The UK hardback comes in at just over 500 pages, and it is quite large in width and height too. Lots of words! So when I got my Kobo I had an inspired moment and decided it would be best to read it on a device, for convenience and to save my poor shoulder from carrying it around.

The Lost Symbol is the third Robert Langdon adventure to issue from Brown's pen, and sees Langdon chasing around Washington D.C. after his mentor has been kidnapped. As always the novel revolves around a secretive group which has real life conspiracies attached to it, in this case the Freemasons and the mythical pyramid which supposedly reveals an all important secret, it is the secrets in this story that allows the reader to be drawn in. There are so many conspiracies surrounding the Freemasons that the reader does not know whether some of Brown's plot devices are real or not.

I enjoyed this book, but no where near as much as Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, it took a long time to get into, which is a problem I had not previously had, and I think that was mainly due to the antagonist simply not interesting me enough. His mystery which is supposed to make you want to read from the get-go didn't create the compulsion to read that the main body of the story created for me.

The story has many twists and turns, some which are easy to guess some which are cleverer, and the resolution to the action is satisfying. However I felt the story dragged on a little bit too long, the tying up of loose ends felt long winded and like it should have ended many pages before it did so.

The story hasn't put me off the Langdon series of novels, but it hasn't kept the buzz alive for me to be truly excited about the next one. It was an interesting read but not the best of the bunch.

★★★