Dan Brown has become a household name since the release of his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code in 2003. He is highly regarded as a mystery novelist with his conspiracy thrillers in the themes of religion and the backdrop of secret societies. Focusing on his Robert Langdon series of novels, much of his books have revolved around a Harvard professor Robert Langdon who is an expert in symbology and iconography. Robert Langdon finds himself involved in global conspiracies featuring shadowy arcane organizations. The adventures of Robert Langdon are thrilling and make the novels page-turner.
Dan Brown’s stylized writing keeps you connected to the story throughout and makes it more engaging with each page. While being the author of numerous #1 Bestselling books, he has also won the Goodreads Choice Awards (Best Mystery & Thriller) for Inferno and Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Fiction for The Da Vince Code. His works, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno, have also been adapted as movies with Tom Hanks in the lead role.
I have curated a list of my personal favorite novels by Dan Brown. The list is as follows:
1. The Da Vinci Code
In the dead of the night, a Harvard symbologist is awakened by a phone call. The curator of the Louvre Museum is murdered inside the museum and his body is covered with baffling symbols. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the riddles, they are stunned by the trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci, visible for all to see but ingeniously disguised. It startles them further to find out that the Curator was involved in the Priory of Sion – a secret society whose members included pioneers like Sir Isaac Newton, Da Vinci and Victor Hugo, to guard a historical secret. Robert and Sophie now have to decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in order to save the secret from being lost forever, while saving themselves from the faceless adversary who is shadowing their every move.
2. Deception Point
A thriller unlike any you have ever read. A rare discovery has been made by NASA satellites deep beneath the Arctic Circle. Rachel Sexton is sent by the White House along with a team of analysts, also accompanied by Michael Tolland, a well-versed charismatic scholar. Rachel and her team travel to the Arctic to uncover the unthinkable: a bold deception with a potential threat to plunge the world into controversy. Before they inform the President, Rachel and Michael are attacked by a group of assassins. While fleeing for their lives across a lethal and desolate landscape, their only hope is to find out about the person behind this master plan. In their journey, the shocking truth they discover is the biggest deception of all.
The ideas in this novel are inventive and fun, which keep you hooked throughout. It is a quite engrossing and entertaining global thriller.
3. Angels & Demons
World-renowned Harvard Professor of Symbology, Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss Research Facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. This takes him to uncover an age-old vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old secret society – The Illuminati. Robert Langdon joins forces in Rome with a scientist, Vittoria Vetra in a race to save the Vatican City from a powerful time bomb. The combination of arcane history and conspiracy never falls short of entertainment. The fast-paced, and adventurous story would keep you engrossed and thrilled. The story is a 600-page description of one day with a gripping storyline that won’t allow you to put the book down.
4. Origin
Edmond Kirsch, one of Robert Langdon’s first students at Harvard, now a forty-year-old renowned billionaire and futurist is about to make an announcement at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao which will change the face of science forever, an astonishing breakthrough. The event begins, but the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, it appears that the secrets that are being unveiled maybe get lost forever. Robert Langdon, with the help of Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director escapes to Barcelona on a quest to locate the cryptic passcode that will unlock Kirsch’s secret. But the quest is opposed by a powerful enemy who will go all lengths to silence Edmond Kirsch. With his usual style of writing, Dan Brown keeps you at the edge while Robert Langdon is on the adventure. The story is totally gripping and compelling.
5. The Lost Symbol
In the stunning follow-up of the global thriller Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown again proves why he is the most popular thriller-fiction writer. Keeping the pace and thrill maintained as the last title, The Lost Symbol provides the audience with the thrill and adventure they want. Robert Langdon arrives in the U.S. Capitol Building when the night takes a bizarre turn. An ancient object with five symbols encoded artfully is found in the building. Langdon’s beloved mentor Peter Solomon is kidnapped, and the only way to find him out is to jump into the clandestine world of hidden history and Masonic secrets.
Dan Brown will again thrill you with this lightning fast-paced story, with surprises waiting for you at every turn. This one is the most thrilling Dan Brown novel yet.
6. Inferno
Robert Langdon startled awakes in a hospital in Italy, with no recollection of the past 36 hours, including the macabre object in his belongings. He and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee the place as a female assassin is trailing them down to kill Robert Langdon. With the help of the hidden object in his jacket, he realized that a lot of people are out there trying to kill him, the government is not supporting him and wants him dead. Robert finds a map in the cylinder with him, Botticelli’s Map of Hell, which is inspired by Dante’s Inferno. While trying to decipher the mystery, Langdon finds out about a potential plague threat by the genius scientist Zobrist, who thinks that the human species will soon come to an end due to the increasing population. The only solution is to end one-third of the human population and he takes the matter into his hand.
Combining classical Italian history, art and literature with cutting-edge science, it is a thrilling story of suspense, excitement and danger.
7. Digital Fortress
Digital Fortress is a cutting-edge techno-thriller with an emphasis on cryptography. An exciting plot bolstered by a lot of suspense, rapid pace and romantic entanglement. Susan Fletcher, a brilliant mathematician and head cryptographer at National Security Agency, is called upon to decipher a code that its invincible code-breaking machine couldn’t break. The code-named Digital Fortress is unbreakable and is crated by an ex-NSA cryptographer, Ensei Tankado. The code makes NSA held hostage, if it is released it would potentially cripple the U.S. intelligence. The extensive research by Dan Brown and the laudable details makes this book quite realistic and provokes the reader to wonder how much is being concealed by the government from the public.
You might be wondering about the connection between The Last Supper at the top and this blog post. By reading the above description you have now got an idea of Dan Brown’s writing style. Art, Cryptography, and History, are essentials parts of his storyline. Once you read his books, you won’t look at the creations of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the other pioneers as just artworks, but they would seem to you as centuries of secrets in the form of cryptic messages ingeniously disguised in paintings and sculptures. Dan Brown novels give us a different perception to look at the World, things may seem ordinary from the outside but may carry deep secrets within.
Follow this link to read my article on the chronology of Dan Brown’s books.
