The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon #3)

by Dan Brown
3 Stars
Setting: Washington, DC
509 pages
Published 2009

Ellie's Review
The first half of this book was a real page-turner for me. Then I started loosing interest, and it was work to keep myself interested at the end. I didn't feel like I learned that much in this book, unlike his other Robert Langdon novels. I'm interested in learning more about Masons but didn't feel like I learned too much from this book.  Brown had too much of an agenda, and I just got tired of it. One of his scientific breakthroughs in the novel was something I've known for years - I just expected more.  Overall, I liked it but this was not up on the same level as The Da Vinci Code.

Book Summary
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation... one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.