Angels & Demons - Dan Brown

If you liked The DaVinci Code, you will probably like Angels & Demons. It's just as cerebral, but way more action.

Our protagonist, Robert Langdon, Harvard University Symbologist gets a call that will call upon his knowledge of a secret scientific society - the Illuminati. The Illuminati was established in the days of Galileo by a group wanting to discuss new ideas and not be punished by the Vatican. Langdon believed the society was long dead - but the evidence is proving otherwise. A scientist was murdered and a sample of antimatter was stolen from his lab. It appears the highly-explosive antimatter was kept safe in a container in a docking bay in the lab and has only 24 hours of battery life, after that, the explosion will remove several city blocks.

Langdon and the scientist's daughter (and scientist herself) Vittoria Vetra are swept off to Vatican City where 4 Cardinals went missing on the eve of a Papal conclav. The 4 Cardinals were the front runners to be elected the next Pope. In addition, a strange cylinder has appeared on one of the Vatican's security cameras - a camera they cannot now find. It would seem the Illuminati is finally planning to exact revenge on the Vatican - at the exact moment when all the Cardinals will be gathered in St. Peter's to elect the new Pope.

Langdon and Vetra follow clues in works of art all around Rome with the hope of finding the missing Cardinals and clues to the location of the antimatter. Langdon's impressive knowledge of art, religion, and swimming (yes swimming) come to his rescue on many occasions. With the aid of the late Pope's closest aide and the Swiss Guard, they race the clock to find the next clue. As they find each of the 4 locations they are led to, they find a missing Cardinal. At one location, Vetra is kidnapped and Langdon has a new purpose to outwit the assassin. Within minutes to go, he learns the late Pope's aid is the last target. Through all this, a reporter is hot on their heels in the hope of getting a scoop and a name for himself.

Before I knew it, I was halfway through the book - I couldn't read fast enough. It switches from action to mystery and back again many times in a virtual literary roller coaster. The premise is a bit far-fetched, but Brown is a master of twisting fact into fiction and in the vast amount of details he provides, you find it easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.

Throughout the book you keep changing your mind on who the bad guys and good guys are and in the end I was completely surprised. The ending slowed a little quickly and was a little disappointing in my humble opinion - but it was easily forgiven since the story had left me breathless in several places. The fact that the press was able to do live reports of murders was harder to swallow than the resurfacing of an ancient cultlike society. And I would have liked to get to know Vittoria a little better. But for all the historic and/or scientific inaccuracies that may or may not exist, it's wonderfully plotted. Where else can you find an ancient secret brotherhood, plots against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, antimatter, assassins, AND art all squeezed into a little more than 24 hours.