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ANGELS & DEMONS By Dan Brown
Once in a great while you read an author whose work you enjoy so much, you go back and buy everything he ever wrote just to get more of him. That was the experience I had with Dan Brown, author of the current number one on the New York Times bestseller list - The Da Vinci Code. Well, after devouring The Da Vinci Code, I bought his three previous books – Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. And apparently I wasn’t the only one with the need for more Dan Brown because Angels and Demons, published three years ago, is now back on the paperback bestseller list.
I’ve debated with Dan Brown fans whether The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons is the better read. They are both Robert Langdon suspense novels filled with such intelligence and religious intrigue that it’s hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to, I would choose Angels and Demons. I like the ending better.
In Angels and Demons, Robert Langdon is once again summoned in the middle of the night to help with the investigation of a murder. This time Langdon is summoned to CERN headquarters in Switzerland to view the body of a murdered scientist who has the symbol of one of the oldest and most secret societies branded into his chest. The society is the Illuminati, and the book takes off from there at a breathtaking pace. The entire novel covers a single 24 hour period, a fact which makes my head spin just remembering it.
I learn so much from Dan Brown’s novels. In Angels and Demons, I felt like I was in Rome, at the Vatican, watching the centuries old religious ritual of Conclave in which a new pope is selected by cardinals from all over the world. Much of what Dan Brown incorporates in this novel is not fiction, which makes the fiction all the more compelling and interesting. For fans of religious symbolism and history, fans of Italy, fans of suspense or just lovers of great writing, I highly recommend the best-selling paperback from Dan Brown – Angels and Demons. On the Book Beat for KSL Newsradio 1160, I’m Amanda Dickson.
