CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.
The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.
In a breath-taking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible - the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
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[Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own]***
(@TransworldBooks, 14 May 2009, first published May 2000, 624 pages, ebook, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I read and loved The Da Vinci Code years ago but have never picked up another book by the author, even though I love the movie adaptations. I don't know why. Maybe I've let literary sobs who don't rate the author every high influence me. Well, consider me to have learned my lesson. I loved this book. It's better than a lot of thrillers out there with its religious, almost mythology overtones. I would love to be a symbologist. It sounds cool. Even though I've seen the movie more than once, the book is a very different experience and I couldn't remember much of what happened so the movie didn't spoil the book for me. This ticked all the boxes for me; fascinating concept, well written characters, easy to read despite the length of the book and lots of fun. I plan to read more books by the author. This is a fabulous.
