By now, anyone who has read Brown's previous works knows Robert Langdon, who is back for his third round of esoteric adventure. Ostensibly in Washington DC for a speaking engagement, he finds out that he's actually been lured there under false pretenses and that the person who supposedly invited him there has been kidnapped, and his hand has been left on the floor of the Capitol rotunda. Langdon feels he has no choice but to get involved, and finds himself battling not only his friend's captor, but the CIA as well. Hmm. The captor wants something that Langdon has, which will supposedly lead him to a secret pyramid in which lies the heart of the "Ancient Mysteries." There's a catch: the CIA doesn't want Langdon to cooperate and tries to thwart him at every turn. Langdon, accompanied by the kidnap victim's scientist sister, goes on a merry chase around DC in an effort to save his friend. So far, nothing new here in the Dan Brown formula.
He chases around for about the first 300 or so pages, throwing around a lot of esoteric knowledge and taking the reader on a tour of Washington DC's mystical architecture, then things settle down a bit so we get some back story to help understand and to put things in perspective before things begin to heat up once more.

I'll give him this much: Brown manages to throw a lot of arcane and esoteric knowledge and theory out there (which I always find interesting even if I know a lot of it is just too unreal) and there is a definite plot twist I didn't see coming. The short chapters act as mini-cliffhangers that made me want to continue reading until I could hear Langdon say something along the lines of "aha! this all makes sense," which he does many times throughout the novel.

On the other hand, his writing is often repetitive, tedious, and clunky. Characterization is obviously not his strong point, so frankly, I didn't care about the players involved. But for me, the worst part was that after spending so much time on this book, I felt like I was robbed at the end. Normally I can suspend disbelief, sit back and relax and enjoy books like this if the end pays off, making it worth the ride, but not this time.

I didn't particularly care that much for it, but this book has already sold in the millions of copies, so it all works out for the author, and there are many people who've reviewed the book and absolutely loved it. So for that reason, I'd say that although I can't personally recommend it, people who are Dan Brown fans might want to give it a try and judge it for themselves.