The Lost Symbol

By: Dan Brown

"heart-dropping surprises keep your eyes running across the pages with Langdon"

As with anything Dan Brown writes including the learned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, “your skepticism is one of your greatest strengths as an academic. It is also your greatest weakness” (103). Like in his previous two adventures, a morning call alerts Langdon with an invitation of sorts. In a few hours he finds himself at the U.S. Capitol to give a speech at the request of his friend Peter Soloman, a powerful Mason and philanthropist. However, when Langdon arrives on the stage, the room only contains tourists oblivious to the significance of his presence. Another call interrupts his confusion, along with another invitation, leading him to Soloman’s severed hand pointing up towards the Rotunda. Thus, the quest for the Ancient Mysteries, or the world’s hidden wisdom, begins.

          Once again, odd circumstances force Langdon into a grand but dreadful chase. In order to save Peter’s life from his captor, Mal’akh—a master of disguise who is brilliantly tattooed into a disturbing work of art—Langdon must unravel the clues and locate the Ancient Mysteries. Of course, he cannot accomplish this without the help Peter’s sister, Katherine, a noetic scientist. As they piece together clues, they discover more about the hidden secrets and inner workings of the Masons and how they intertwine themselves with the foundation of the United States. However, they must hasten, for time flees.

          The Lost Symbol, with its adventure prone professor scrambling all over Washington, D. C., sometimes seems like an intensified combination of Indiana Jones and National Treasure. Because of the story’s close location, it captures you, giving you a closer connection and greater fear of Langdon’s possible failure. Its heart-dropping surprises keep your eyes running across the lines of the pages with Langdon, devouring his newest story.

-Haley P.