Inferno by Dan Brown

This is the latest novel with Robert Langdon as the central character. This time he wakes up in a hospital with a head injury. Like the earlier novels this is a fast paced story lasting a couple of days only. There is the usual extensive description of the art and architecture as well as the significance of the various monuments and the artefacts from the past, in keeping with Robert Langdon’s speciality of symbolism. Why are there people trying to kill him? What is it he knows that is dangerous to him and to the doctor who helped him escape from the hospital?

There is something that he had in a secret pocket that is a clue to what this danger is about. Why has a very famous painting been changed and what does this change indicate? Every time he feels he has found an answer there are more questions raised. What is disaster has been planned by someone who was an ardent advocate of putting a brake to the rising tide of humanity and its impact on earth’s future? The twists and turns of this story are fast and sharp. In fact the plot is actually better than ‘The Lost Word’. The end is also marginally better and that one is kept guessing as to who is reliable and who is the enemy. As usual there is travelling from country to country, place to place desperately trying to avert a pandemic that could destroy mankind. Why is the doctor who is helping him, doing so? Who has sent the soldiers searching for him? Will they succeed in saving the world from a pandemic?

I would say that after the last novel I was not holding my breath for this one, but it was a pleasant surprise and fairly readable. It does go on about the descriptions which are needed to explain the symbology but not entirely crucial for the plot.  However, the final reveal is not a disappointment and acceptable the answer to the questions. A usual weaving of fact with fiction to creates this story, which is Dan Brown’s style.