Here he goes again! Dan Brown is back with a new page-turner - and more, such as plot twists that are not so much twists as a road straight ahead and a plot that feels oddly similar to every other Dan Brown book. There's Langdon, on a run, with a female sidekick, a mysterious organisation (or many of those) with conservative& elderly, male leaders. People are again doing bad things in the name of religion - and I feel like I'm rereading the Da Vinci Code, except now we're in Spain.
So why, oh why, do I like this book? At least enough to actually give it a good rating?
Well, I am not a critic, I'm a consumer - an avid book consumer, and there are things that really speak for Brown. Firstly, I buy a Dan Brown book and I know what I'm going to get: a fast-paced thriller, filled with intriguing symbols, hidden meanings and "deeper" questions. It's close enough to truth that I can entertain the idea "what if this were true" without loosing the illusion. There's plenty to learn from the characters knowledge, locations, central artwork... things that I know are based on real things. My Trivial Pursuit skills get enhanced, and I'm having fun reading. What's there not to like?
I do wish Brown would somehow flip the script and surprise me with something I haven't seen before in terms of _plot_, because the setting is changing every time while still being engaging. That's where Brown's true talent lies as a writer.