Brown, Dan: Angels & Demons

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Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened in the middle of the night and confronted with evidence of something he hadn't thought possible: the Illuminati, the world's oldest satanic cult, though long thought a defunct organization, is apparently thriving and responsible for the horrific mutilation and murder of a brilliant physicist. Arrived at the victim's workplace, a secretive nuclear research facility in Switzerland, Langdon discovers that the Illuminati have more in store for the world than the assassination of a single scientist. The group has its hands on the world's most destructive material, stolen from the dead man's lab, and is intent on destroying the Catholic Church by violent means.

Angels & Demons is the precursor to Dan Brown's much ballyhooed The DaVinci Code, which also features Langdon in the Indiana Jones-ish role of studly-smart professor-hero. The book is similar to The DaVinci Code, too, in its style and content--a romantic flirtation in the midst of crisis; secret religious history unveiled; complicated information rendered highly digestible by Mr. Brown's skillful hand; short, explosive chapters that make the book very hard to put down. A great story, well-written.