The Secret of Secrets: A Novel

Good writing, keeps you hooked. However, it could have used another couple rounds of editing with some characters being cut or better utilized. Also, Brown has a bad habit of showing instead of telling, and repetitively doing so (we know Katherine likes to buck the academic consensus, we understood that 20 pages in, no need to keep reminding us). While I found the stuff the CIA was working on somewhat interesting, the whole premise of the book is a bit contrived, same with who the Golem is. Not to mention, the publisher character becomes redundant a quarter through the book and then is strung along He's also a little cringe. Regardless, the book kept me hooked for a weekend and explored topics that are kind of interesting.

I'll be honest, not his best work. The story is intriguing and exciting, but honestly I feel like Robert Langdon the cryptographer isnt used the same as previous books. In previous books he did a ton of deciphering of symbols to find clues , but in this book he's mostly being reactionary. very little cryptography at all, short of a few stretches that clearly was Dan Brown saying "I want Langdon to end at point B how can we flub it to make that happen?". I dont usually say a book wasn't worth my time or money, but in this instance, I will say its just not Brown's best work, which kinda sucks considering how long we waited for another Langdon book and how excited I was for it. Shame.

As a Dan Brown fan, I looked forward to the release of this book. I was honestly disappointed in that it was a shift from his previous background and plots. The story was interesting but found it too detailed and unnecessarily long. Still, I hope there will be another book.