Craving for some mystery novel by Dan Brown, the famous author of The Da Vinci Code? Well, if you're a huge fan of his, we're going to introduce Dan Brown's latest novel. After a 6-year drought of intriguing mystery novel, the prolific writer is back with his all-new work - The Lost Symbol.
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By Charmaine Tew Shu Yi
The Lost Symbol, formerly known as the working title The Solomon Key, is a 2009 novel by American writer Dan Brown. It is a conspiracy theory thriller, set in Washington DC.The story takes place over a period of 12 hours in Washington, D.C., with a focus on Freemasonry. Langdon is summoned to give a lecture in National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol, with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon. However instead of an audience for his lecture, Langdon finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed into a Hand of the Mysteries and pointing upwards, to the fresco The Apotheosis of Washington on the inside of the Capitol dome. This leads to a game of cat and mouse throughout the museums and architecture of the city. Langdon joins forces with Solomon's sister, Noetic scientist Dr. Katherine Solomon, while matching wits with Mal'akh, a tattooed, self-castrated and brilliant villain who is in search of an ancient source of power. Mal'akh has taken Peter hostage, and demands that Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter's life. Langdon is also apprehended by Director Inoue Sato of the CIA Office of Security, who demands that he solve the mystery since it is a matter of national security, as the villain is planning to release a clandestine video of Washington powerbrokers engaged in secret Masonic rituals. The chase and the clues to the puzzles lead through the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Museum Support Center, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Freedom Plaza, the United States Botanical Garden, and Washington National Cathedral. Some ciphers in the book use magic squares such as those in the 1514 work Melencolia I, and an Order 8 Square created by Benjamin Franklin. Processes of alchemy are also described to reveal some of the clues.
In the climax in the altar room on the top floor of the Masonic headquarters House of the Temple, Mal'akh reveals that he is in fact Peter's son Zachary. Unhappy with the way he was treated by his father, he faked his own death in a Turkish prison and experienced a religious epiphany, finding the need to learn the Word and complete his transformation into a godlike being. Trying to re-create the Biblical story of Abraham on the verge of sacrificing his son, Zachary tries to goad his father into killing him with a special sacrificial knife on the altar of the Freemasons. But Langdon intrudes, a CIA helicopter disables Zachary's laptop with a targeted EMP pulse to prevent the distribution of the video, and Mal'akh is killed when the helicopter shatters a skylight above him.
Peter then takes Langdon to the Washington Monument, saying that the Word that Mal'akh was seeking was actually in books such as the Bible, Koran, and Bhagavad Gita, and that the true Ancient Mystery is in fact the realization that people are not God's subjects, but in fact possess the capability to be gods themselves. Once they realize this fact, they will open the gateway to a magnficent future.