Muy Caliente!

It's getting hot, so...

time for Inferno by Dan Brown. Yeah, that Davinci Code guy. I hadn't thought about him in a while, but then when watching a Youtube video, I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie.

And, since I hadn't read a good popcorn book in a while, I thought it only right to see if this was on the shelf of my local library.

This is another in the Robert Langdon series (Angels and Demons, The Davinci Code), and so I assumed that old Professor Langdon would be receiving phone call in Chapter 2 asking him to come to such and such place in Italy to solve a mystery about art and religion. (And really, don't all college professors receive random phone calls to take all-expense paid trips to foreign countries to run for their lives?)

However, I was pleasantly surprised when the book began with Robert Langdon awaking in a hospital, unsure of how he arrived there. While the amnesia conceit is a favorite of soap operas, in this case it provided a fun "double dose" of mystery, as Langdon was not only trying to solve the mystery of who he could trust and what this map in his possession was all about, but also the mystery of what happened to him (and how did he end up in Italy?). So, while the running for life/art mystery/conspiracy/beautiful woman sidekick/Italian setting stayed true to the pattern of these books, there were other aspects that, to my delight, broke the pattern.

At first, it seems like the Consortium is the big conspiracy bad guy here, but as you read, you inevitably question whether the WHO, American government, or some other unknown group is behind all the trouble. This is a slight, albeit important departure from his other books where the conspiracy is evident early on (although who is the real bad guy is always open to question). I also liked that while much of the book was about art, one of the main influences was Dante's Inferno, telling the tale of Dante's descent into hell (and subsequent ascent).

Actually, the book covers both the book and a painting of Dante's circles of hell, which I hadn't seen (and which, to my chagrin, the book doesn't show). Seeing this helps show how the different sinners suffer in the different circles, and moreover, I appreciate how each person is literally "stripped" of their trappings. Perhaps this is purposeful symbolism on Brown's part, since in this story Langdon is "stripped" of his memory, his possessions, and even his sense of who to trust, or maybe this is just coincidence. Either way, it's interesting.

Anyway, I won't spoil this mystery/thriller, but I can say that I was not expecting the ending or the rationale behind the evil that the "villain" planned to unleash. Given this ending, I'm very interested to see how the filmmakers will handle the plot (and how audiences will receive it).

Perhaps it was because I wasn't expecting much from this book that I liked it so much. Critics have some negative things to say about it, and while I can't disagree in retrospect, in the moment, it was a fun read. I'm terrible about mysteries (I can usually see what is coming), so I appreciated the twists in this story and the unique scientific aspect to it (as opposed to the religious bent of his first two novels). In fact, its made me curious enough that I might pick up The Lost Symbol, which I heard was a stinker, but I might give it a chance in case the critics have tried to make a good popcorn novel live up to more than it is.

If you like a good mystery, if you worry about how the world might end, or if you have a lot of time to spend sitting in a beach chair, then I recommend this book for you!

Happy reading!