Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol - Completely lost

Barring Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown has delivered fairly unimpressive work. Couldn't say no to The Lost Symbol after it was literally handed to me on a platter - my cousin had it lying around the house when I went visiting over the weekend. Though painfully lengthy, the book got off to a good start. Suspense built up after 50-odd pages, and I started reading it in earnest. After all, the book starred Robert Langdon, and gotta admit, I find such historical suspenses set in modern times interesting.

The story begins with Prof. Langdon being called to Washington D.C., apparently by his good friend and mentor, Peter Solomon. What starts as an innocent invitation to give a lecture soon turns into a nightmare, with Peter Solomon's severed hand greeting our friend Robert Langdon in the lecture room. Yeah, spooky. A series of horrifying events follow, with Peter's sis Katherine Solomon also in the fray, and a weird, bald, tattooed man (animal is the only word for him) trying his best to kill everybody in sight.

What made me want to hurl the book at a wall towards the end was its glaring plot; maybe, if it were your first book, you might not be able to guess it, but the answer stares at you right in the face. Dan Brown obviously thought of his readers as fools. It's also a damn weak plot; hard to believe so much stuff was done, so many people were killed, for such a stupid reason. There is no feel-good factor once you reach the end; just a slight headache coupled with painful eyes, like in my case.