Inferno by Dan Brown

 I know, I do not usually review books that are more pop culture than noteworthy, but the truth be told, I really read a whole lot more books that are like this book than I read anything else, and I felt like after the last Dan Brown book it would be reasonable to say a kind word or two about this one.

The first review of this that I read said that Dan Brown fans would not be disappointed.  While on the one hand that might sound like damning with faint praise. However, if you really do like Dan Brown and his books that race through various European cities, highlighting the cultural and architectural sites while Robert Langdon and whoever he is fleeing evil with try to stay alive, then listen up.

This is not the sequel to 'The Lost Symbol', which even a Dan Brown fan could find nothing good to say about.  This is a very readable thriller that is recognizably Dan Brown in the best sense of the word.  The book opens in Florence, moves after a bit to Venice, and more or less ends up in Istanbul.  If you have been to those cities it will evoke memories of those cities--again, far be it from Brown to veer off his very successful formula, and if I am truthful, it is something I very much like about his books.  They are not great literature. But I read plenty of not great literature, and have been a life long fan of the murder mystery genre, in all its permutations, so I have no snobbery.  As I have said before, I am as fond of pop culture as the next person.
This book is very enjoyable, when viewed within that framework.