The world went crazy for The DaVinci Code a few years back. For a few months, water coolers were alive with talk of the Holy Grail, Rose Lines and hidden symbolism. But with mass appeal comes the inevitable backlash from self-proclaimed literary experts spouting accusations of poor writing, flimsy characterization and falsified research. Then, suddenly, everyone who had pretended they loved and understood Dan Brown’s work now had to pretend they hated it, because God forbid people would actually form their own opinions about books instead of following the group consensus like a flock of marginally self-aware sheep. Anyway, the upshot is that these days, proclaiming yourself a fan of Dan Brown generally renders you about as popular as Osama Bin Laden dressed in a Nazi stormtrooper uniform.

The book kicks off in Washington DC. Robert Langdon has been invited by his old friend Peter Solomon, a 33rd Degree Master Freemason, to deliver a lecture in the Capitol Building. But all is not as it seems, and Langdon soon learns that the invitation was a ruse, that someone has taken Peter hostage, and will only release him if Langdon can find and decipher a mysterious pyramid hidden by the Freemasons long ago. The pyramid is said to point the way to a treasure powerful enough to change the world. Accompanying Langdon is Peter’s beautiful sister, a scientist working on a research project which also has the potential to radically alter human understanding of the world around them.

The first and second acts are a master class in pacing and tension, with the stakes getting raised higher and higher, but it all kind of unravels in the final act when Brown is finally forced to lay bare all of the mysteries that have propelled the plot forward. I was expecting a finale that was grand and triumphant, but what I got instead was strangely low key and subdued. Things which have been built up to be massive and earth-shattering throughout the story are revealed to actually be quite mundane. I won’t go so far as to say that the ending is disappointing, but it does leave you feeling ever so slightly cheated.

Mal-akh, the tattooed Devil-worshipping villain of the story, is a bit of an odd one. He’s interesting enough, but suffers from the common problem of initially appearing super intelligent and virtually omnipotent, to gradually becoming more stupid as the story progresses. By the end, I had tno more understanding of his motives than at the start, or what exactly he was hoping to accomplish with his bizarre plan. Oh, and if you don’t see the ‘twist’ about his background coming from a mile off, you probably need help dressing yourself in the morning.