The Lost Symbol

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown was a joint-reading with my friend Hanson Tan. We went on an exciting and thrilling journey of codes, secrets, and unseen truths—all set within the hidden chambers, tunnels and temples of Washington, D.C.

The Lost Symbol, which is the third book in the Robert Langdon series, is a follow-up to The Da Vinci Code and it was indeed my plan to read the latter first. However, I reckoned there is nothing wrong with jumping the queue by reading The Lost Symbol; hence, the co-reading with Hanson. I threw all caution to the wind and started the puzzle-driven journey. Revisiting Robert Langdon is a mind-blowing experience and an educational one too.

I first got to know about the Harvard professor of ‘Religious Symbology’ in Angels and Demons—the first in the series. In The Lost Symbol, I was exposed to the influence of Freemasonry on America's Founding Fathers, the Masonic architecture of Washington D.C., characters such as the German artist Albrecht Durer (and his work Melencolia I), and the tattooed villain, Mal'akh. Dan Brown cleverly weaves all of these elements together, making subjects that I would not otherwise be interested in, into something that is fast-paced, thrilling, and intellectually stimulating.

As in all Langdon stories, there is a female lead in them. In The Lost Symbol it is Katherine Solomon. She is a fifty years old woman, beautiful, and is a leading researcher of Noetic Science. Almost murdered from the start by Mal'akh, she manages to escape and finds Langdon. Her brother, Peter Solomon, is already captured. When his severed hand—tattooed to resemble ‘the Hand of the Mysteries’—turns up at the U.S. Capitol Building, the frenzy begins.

Have you read The Lost Symbol? If yes, what are your thoughts about it?