The Lost Symbol- Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol, released September 2009, is the third installment in the trilogy of religious/mystery/thrillers by Dan Brown, including the Da Vinci Code. It involves the same main character as the other two novels, Robert Langdon, Harvard University Symbologist.

The story begins when Robert Langdon is asked to speak at the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Peter Solomon is Langdon's mentor and the head of the Smithsonian Istitute. When Robert Langdon arrives to speak at the Capitol, there is no one to listen to him, because the lecture invitation was just a trick to bring him there. Instead he hears screaming coming from a special room in the Capitol. He goes to investigate and finds the right hand of Peter Solomon mounted on a stick in the middle of the room, with special symbolic tatoos on each finger. Since Mr. Langdon is a symbologist, he recognizes it as the symbolic Hand of Mysteries, which points up to the Apotheosis of Washington, inside the Capitol dome. He analyzes the symbol tatoos on Solomon's severed hand and discovers that the kidnapper who cut of Solomon's hand and abducted him wants him to find the Masonic Pyramid, and more symbols on the hand actually point them down instead of up toward the dome as they had previously thought. This journey leads Langdon down to a seldom used and almost unknown room in the basement and find the Masonic Altar.

Meanwhile, Peter Solomon's sister Dr. Katherine Solomon, a Noetic scientist, is doing research in a secret laboratory her brother built. Peter knows of Katherines secret research, and is sworn to secrecy, but later after Peter is kidnapped, she learns that he shared some of the details of her research with Dr. Abbadon, who supposedly was working with Peter for psychological reasons.

As the story progresses, Langdon and Katherine are brought together in their journey to find Peter Solomon, discover the kidnapper, find the Masonic Pyramid, and mostly, to prevent a single insane man from revealing secret information that would destroy life as we know it.

The symbols in this book were not obscure at all, considering the main conflict IS symbols, which drives the complex plot. The Masonic Pyramid was a symbol, as well as each tatoo on Peter Solomon's hand and the ring he wears, which is the mark of the Freemason's highest honor.

This novel was extremely complicated and required major focus when reading in order to follow the plot's twists and turns and extreme detail. If a reader is able to follow the mystery and comprehend the symbols of the story, it would be a great read. I would reccomend this story only to a person who enjoys lengthy and complicated books with no real, satisfying resolution. If a reader enjoyed The DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons, they may enjoy this novel as well. It required some knowledge about the two preceding novels as well, to fully comprehend the vaule of the plot and Robert Langdon's thinking. I did not read the two other books but saw both movies, and I retained enough knowledge from those to be able to (somewhat) understand this novel.