The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Dan Brown’s follow-up to The Da Vinci Code has sold more copies in its first 36 hours of UK release than any other adult hardback novel, say publishers

The Lost Symbol, formerly known as the working title The Solomon Key, is a novel by American writer Dan Brown. The Lost Symbol is the third book to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon, after 2000’s Angels & Demons and 2003’s The Da Vinci Code. On its first day the book sold one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

The book’s story takes place over a period of 12 hours in Washington, D.C., with a focus on Freemasonry.Langdon is summoned to Washington to give a lecture, apparently by his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon. However instead of an audience for his lecture he finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed and pointing in a peculiar way. Langdon begins a rapid chase through the basement of the Capitol building, solving a series of cryptic clues. He 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. The climax takes place in a Masonic Lodge. Mal’akh believes he has the “lost symbol”. His death minutes later has a description of his soul being received by devils. The final chapters reveal more about the “lost symbol”, and the book ends with the word “Hope”.

The book begins with the initiation of a thirty third degree Freemason, later revealed to be Mal’akh. After successfully infiltrating the highest level of Freemasonry, Mal’akh intends to use his newfound position to find the Ancient Mysteries, a mythical source of lost knowledge.

Later, Robert Langdon receives a call from his old friend Peter Solomon, a thirty third degree Mason, inviting him to deliver a speech at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. However, Langdon finds Solomon’s severed hand in the Rotunda and quickly discovers that he had been fooled into coming by Mal’akh because he possesses the knowledge and the key required to unlock the Ancient Mysteries. Mal’akh reveals that he has Peter hostage, and demands that Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter’s life. He is then quickly 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. Langdon interprets the symbols on Peter’s hand as the acronym SBB13, a room in the subbasement of the Capitol Building. They discover that Peter had converted the room into a Freemason meditation chamber, and find an incomplete pyramid in the back. Sato quickly realizes that Langdon is in possession of the pyramid’s capstone, which Peter had given to him for safekeeping years ago. She orders him to hand the capstone over, but he is rescued by the Architect of the Capitol Building, Warren Bellamy. Bellamy, revealing that he is also a Freemason and a friend of Peter, and takes him to a hidden room in the Library of Congress. Bellamy insists that the secret of the Ancient Mysteries must be protected at all costs, including Peter’s life, but Langdon remains skeptical about the exitence of the Mysteries.

Meanwhile, Peter’s sister, Katherine Solomon, is performing Noetic experiments in the Smithsonian Museum Support Center. Her experiments in the nature of human consciousness have the potential to unlock the secrets of the ability of thought to affect matter. However, Mal’akh is determined to kill her and destroy her research. He manages to break into Katherine’s lab and destroy her research, but Katherine herself manages to escape. She recognizes Mal’akh as the man who assaulted her family years ago in an attempt to interrogate Peter. Their mother was killed in the incident, while Mal’akh was shot and believed to be dead. She makes her way to the Library of Congress to get help but inadvertently runs into Langdon and Bellamy.

However, their meeting is short-lived, as Sato sends a CIA special forces team to pursue them. Bellamy helps Langdon and Katherine escape, and lets himself be captured as a decoy. Katherine, wanting to Peter, attaches the capstone and pyramid together, which reveals the phrase “The secret hides within The Order” and a code deciphered by a magic square. The decoded message reads Jeova Sanctus Unus, Latin for “One True God”. Langdon is contacted by a friend of Bellamy’s, Reverend Collin Galloway, who instructs them to go to the Washington National Cathedral. After eluding their CIA pursuit, Langdon and Katherine meet with Galloway, who provides them with additional insight into the Ancient Mysteries. Langdon then realizes that “One True God” was actually a pseudonym for Isaac Newton, and the answer lies in his works. Meanwhile, Sato shows Bellamy top secret information which horrifies him and instantly turns him to her side.

As the CIA begins to close in on the cathedral, Langdon and Katherine escape to the nearby Cathedral College. Katherine realizes that the pyramid must be boiled in water to reveal the next clue, as Newton’s temperature scale records the boiling point as thirty three degrees, a signficant number in Freemasonry. The process causes additional words to incandesence. The new phrase reads as: “The secret lies within The Order Eight Franklin Square”. They then receive a phone call from the police, informing them that they have located Mal’akh’s house as well as Peter. However, they are caught by Sato. Langdon tells Sato everything he knows, and in return, she lets him go with Katherine to see Peter. Unfortunately, it is a trap set by Mal’akh, and he captures them both. He interrogates Langdon and forces him to solve the next step in the puzzle, and reveals that he is searching for the Word, a secret word kept by the Freemasons that can grant a person unimaginable power. He leaves Langdon and Katherine to die while he takes Peter to the location of the Word.

Langdon and Katherine are then rescued by Sato. Langdon tells them that the phrase actually refers to the Order Eight Franklin Square, another magic box. They correspond to a set of symbols on the underside of the pyramid, and Langdon quickly deduces that Mal’akh has taken Peter to the Freemason Temple House in D.C. En route, Sato shows Langdon why Mal’akh poses such a threat to national security. He had secretly taped his initiation ceremony, implicating a number of influential Americans. Langdon knows that the Freemason’s archaic rituals would not be understood, and they would face a massive backlash of persecution. Meanwhile, inside the Temple House, 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 and experienced a religious epiphany, finding the need to learn the Word and complete his transformation into a godlike being. Thinking he has learned the Word, Zachary goads Peter into killing him in order to complete the ritual. Fortunately, Langdon tackles Peter before he can carry out the act, while a CIA helicopter disables Zachary’s laptop to keep him from distributing the video. However, the helicopter inadvertently shatters the Temple House’s skylight, mortally wounding Zachary in the shower of glass. Shortly before Zachary dies, Peter reveals that Zachary did not actually know the true Word.

With the night’s events over, Peter decides to show Langdon the true Word. He shows Langdon that it is hidden in the cornerstorne of the Washington Monument, and that the Word is actually the Bible. Peter reveals 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. Katherine remarks that her research that was destroyed by Zachary was safely backed up in a separate location, and that her studies in Noetics are set to revolutionize the scientific field. Peter decides to give them one last present, and arranges for them to be able to view the sun rise over D.C. from the roof of the Capitol Building. Langdon reflects on all that he’s learned in the past twelve hours and feels a certain emotion swelling up within him.

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