by Dan Brown
Part of Robert Langdon, book 1
First published 2000
A renowned scientist is murdered, his body marked with a cryptic symbol. Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to decipher the clue. Langdon's worst fears are realized: the ancient Illuminati brotherhood has resurfaced to wreak vengeance on the Catholic Church. With a lethal time bomb hidden somewhere in the Vatican, Langdon teams up with a beautiful Italian scientist to unravel a 400-year-old trail of clues and stop the countdown to catastrophe.
Genres: adventure, suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: race-against-time, secret-society
Setting: Vatican City, Rome, Italy, Vaticano, Switzerland, Vatican, CERN, Castel Sant'Angelo, St. Peter's Square, Tiber River, College of Cardinals
496 pages · Paperback