The Last Dan Brown

. . . I'll ever read. I waited with bated breath to come to the top of the lending list for The Lost Symbol, and what a monumental disappointment. The Da Vinci Code was a delightful romp, although Angels and Demons had a much better plot line. The only positive thing I can say about the latest (and the others) is that Brown must have an ardent curiosity or a well-oiled research team. His prose generally sends me to the computer to surf and verify things I never knew about history and my own country. I love the origins of things and this one is no different in that category. However, the pro-Christian agenda that seeps between the pages of the former evolves into blatant preaching in this one. In fact, the story is so light that the last 50 pages seem to be an addendum copied directly from the Christian Science Reading Room. I was not amused, and thanks to Ron Howard, I can't get Tom Hanks voice out of my head as the Professor.

Though our Founding Fathers may have been zealous Deists and Masons, Brown's constant reassurance that no conspiracy theories have any place in logical thought are as ludicrous as giving the Vatican a clean slate on human rights was in previous writings. This one's a Don't Read and the ending so bad that I'd like to break a cardinal rule and ruin it. I won't, but the temptation is there, nonetheless.