"The Secret of Secrets" by Dan Brown (2025)

 

I have lists on top of the lists what to read and everything got ignored once I heard about the new Dan Brown novel - somehow I have forgotten that years ago I had actually lost interest in his Robert Langdon saga, the only thing I remember is how much I enjoyed his "The Da Vinci Code" so I without any hesitation I dived into this latest novel. Sadly, it seems that in the thunder refuses to struck twice - while it might be interesting (and occasionally even gripping) read, ""The Secret of Secrets" circles around too many well-known clichés: Langdon runs around ancient European city and is pursued by mysterious organisations & weird antagonists. Without intention to be cruel or cynical but this is exactly what Brown brings to the table every time, kind of we already know what to expect.

I noticed with amusement how much Brown loves to spice up his writing with educational informations about everything, from the architecture and history of Prague to more technical details of the plot - not unlike Jules Verne who in his day was best selling author of literary hits and would often go on forever about smallest technical details that used to drive me mad - this particular characteristic might be endearing to some, but it does slow the plot a lot, as we usually stand in the middle of life threatening situation while Langdon muses about some encyclopedic information. It almost 700 pages, the novel feels bloated and overlong - it could have been easily edited and shortened, but ok, it turned a solid thriller with a surprisingly limp ending that just quietly fizzles away after all that pumped up excitement.