In 2000, Dan Brown, a struggling musician turned writer from Exeter, N.H., published “Angels & Demons,” a techno-religious thriller about a bookish Harvard professor caught in a battle between scientists and the Illuminati in Vatican City.
The novel was not a great success. But in 2003, Brown published a sequel, “The Da Vinci Code.” That book sold more than 80 million copies, was translated into dozens of languages and became a blockbuster film starring Tom Hanks as its erudite hero, Robert Langdon. A cultural phenomenon, it remains one of the best-selling books of all time.
Three other sequels followed — “The Lost Symbol” (2009), “Inferno” (2013) and “Origin” (2017). Now Brown is back with yet another Langdon thriller, “The Secret of Secrets,” about a noetic scientist who goes missing in Prague. The book comes out on Sept. 9.
Brown’s novels are crammed with symbols, codes and maps — and with so many adventures, it can be tough to remember the details of every globe-spanning conspiracy in which Langdon has been enmeshed. Before you crack open his latest case, here’s a cipher for “The Secret of Secrets.”
Who is Robert Langdon?
A professor of symbology, or the study of symbols, Langdon is more wonkish and mild-mannered than your typical action hero. In “The Da Vinci Code,” he’s referred to as “40-something” and though he “might not be considered hunk-handsome,” as an otherwise glowing profile in Boston Magazine describes him, he’s charming in an urbane, unapologetically scholarly way. He’s athletic, swimming 50 laps in the Harvard pool each morning, and has a baritone speaking voice that women seem to find irresistible — though Langdon is no Lothario. He wears loafers, tweed jackets and turtlenecks, but his signature accessory is more playful: a Mickey Mouse wristwatch, given to him by his parents when he was a child.
Does he have any particular strengths or flaws?
Langdon’s primary gift is his eidetic memory: He can recall any image he’s seen before in perfect detail, from a string of characters created by 16th century occultists to a map of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This makes him ideally suited to the study of ancient symbols — and if a mystery involves ambigrams or codes hidden in Renaissance art, there could hardly be a better man for the job.
He also has one major weakness: claustrophobia. As a child, Langdon fell into a well, and even as an adult, he can’t stand being confined in small spaces. He’d rather take the stairs than an elevator, avoids sports like squash or racquetball that feature enclosed courts and lives in an “airy, high-ceilinged Victorian home” rather than Harvard’s faculty housing. In “Angels & Demons,” Langdon speculates that “his attraction to the art world as a young boy sprang from his love of museums’ wide open spaces.”
What kinds of adventures has he been on?
The Langdon thrillers largely take place in historic European capitals — Paris, London, Rome. They typically involve cults, religious orders and secret societies; these include exaggerated versions of real groups like the Priory of Sion, the Masons and the Palmarian Church, as well as purely fictitious organizations like the Consortium, a sort of high-tech consulting firm crossed with a paramilitary agency. There’s a ticking clock thanks to some dire imminent threat, either physical (an antimatter bomb in “Angels & Demons,” a biological plague in “Inferno”) or intellectual (in “Origin,” a tech mogul learns a shocking truth about the beginning of humankind that threatens to undermine all organized religion).
Langdon, of course, winds up in the cross hairs of it all. And by the end of each book, he averts disaster by breaking an ancient code, answering a convoluted riddle or solving a puzzle at the intersection of art, science and religion. (When in doubt, it’s probably something to do with Pi.)
Does he work alone?
Langdon teams up with an attractive, whip-smart female companion on each new case, though their relationship is rarely romantic. In “The Da Vinci Code,” he works with the brilliant cryptographer Sophie Neveu, whose grandfather’s murder sets the plot in motion; in “Inferno,” his partner-in-sleuthing is the doctor Sienna Brooks, who — spoiler alert! — turns out to be one of the bad guys.
There are very few recurring characters in the series, but a couple of minor figures do make repeat appearances — including Langdon’s book editor, Jonas Faukman, whose name is an anagram of Brown’s own real-life editor, Jason Kaufman.
Why are these books so popular?
The Langdon novels are highbrow content in a lowbrow package, combining historical allusions, geographical detail and philosophical inquiry with escapist thrills. The books are deeply researched and packed with vivid descriptions of world-famous landmarks, paintings and churches, giving them a touristy feel, and Brown’s storytelling is so relentlessly propulsive — every single chapter ends on a cliffhanger — that they’re hard to put down. He has a knack for making even the most far-fetched conspiracies seem plausible, and part of the fun is the sense of seeing through the looking glass — even if most of the spooky Masons-and-Illuminati stuff is bunk.
What’s the latest book about?
“The Secret of Secrets” takes place in Prague and features the return, for the first time, of one of Langdon’s past female allies: Dr. Katherine Solomon, the world renowned noetic scientist with whom he partnered in “The Lost Symbol,” who is now his romantic partner. Their new adventure involves groundbreaking research, a top-secret government agency and the hint of something (potentially) supernatural. But for all the twisty details, you’ll have to read the book.
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