Dan Brown's "Inferno" Is On Fire!

I just completed my 9th book of the summer with quite a few more books that I would like to complete before heading back to work at the end of August. In 2003, I read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and thought it was a masterfully written thriller. I had never heard of Dan Brown before reading that novel, and (for me) the novel was as good as the hype that surrounded it. I subsequently went back and read his previously released novels, Deception Point and Angels & Demons and found them to be not as well written as The Da Vinci Code, but that did not deter me. Upon the release in 2009 of the third Robert Langdon book, The Lost Symbol, I was again underwhelmed and thought that perhaps Brown was a one hit wonder and the rest of his novels would be middling. I decided to pick up his most recent Robert Langdon novel, Inferno, and am glad that I stuck with Brown's writings.

Synopsis: "Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno.

Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again, combining classical Italian art, history, and literature with cutting-edge science in this sumptuously entertaining thriller" (Amazon.com).

Review: Brown is back with a vengence! As disappointed I was with his last novel, I thoroughly enjoyed this action packed thriller. Never one to let grass grow under his feet, Brown starts this novel off with a suicide, an attempted murder, amnesia, and a chase. Seriously, you get caught up in the action from the first chapter and it's a roller coaster ride through all 462 pages of the book. This novel is slightly different is that instead of following an ancient code that needs solving, this is about a devotee of Dante Alighieri's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, and using the epic poem to create a modern day scavenger hunt, which could potentially impact the world if unsolved. This book almost makes me want to finally read The Divine Comedy...almost. The novel even has a lovely surprise ending.

In addition to a thrilling mystery, Inferno is a bit of a travelogue. If you've never been to Florence, Venice, or Istanbul, you will feel like you have been there after reading this novel. If you have visited any of these places (I've been to Florence and Venice), it feels like you have returned for a visit. Brown takes the reader on some of behind the scenes areas of well known locations, place in which the average tourist is not privy to and it is magnificent.

My only true complaint about the book (and quite frankly the series of books featuring Robert Langdon) is the formulaic approach: professor and expert on symbology and iconography finds himself embroiled in the middle of a high-stakes mystery, teams up with an attractive, smart and capable foreign woman who helps fill in the gaps and challenges him, and the two cement alliances, skirt villains, and undergo a hair raising adventure to save the world. 

But it's still a good guilty pleasure romp around Italy and Turkey. Is it great literature? No. Is it a fun summer beach read? You bet!

Rating: 4 out 5 stars

Some of the locales in the novel