Is is factually correct, is it historically correct, is it accurate? I don't know and I didn't care. So overall, you have to like mysteries, you need to like history and problem solving and although part of the Professor Robert Langdon series, this being number 4, this can easily be read as a standalone and is crying out to be made into movie as per the others. Brown does like to stress his point and you will find a lot of repetition in this book (hence 4/5 not 5!) In some respects I can kind of see where Zobrist is coming from, the figures and facts speak for themselves but his method is obviously way off. 'Here the throng of tourists was almost impenetrable, creating a claustrophobic crush.' The subject matter itself is quite a provocative topic - world overpopulation. And the beautiful descriptions of Florence and Venice's architecure and art just make me want to jump on a plane now. I like this, makes it feel more authentic. The book is littered with Italian phrases, some are translated, others you understand because of the answers. The tension, the excitement, the red herrings, the double crossing, the will they won't they, deciding who you trust, the descriptiveness of the city's architecture and the fact that I might actually learn something. But you know what, why change a format that works and sells millions of books. Basically different city/villain/lead female but in the same style.

Sound familiar, course it does! This book follows the same suit/format/template of the other Langdon novels Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol even in the ending of each chapter on a cliff-hanger of sorts. Set in Florence, Venice and Istanbul we're taken on a rollercoaster journey as Langdon attempts to solve the mystery and the clues in a race against time before a catastrophic plague is released into the world. All the expected questions were popping in my head: what happened, where is he, who's after him - you know, that kind of thing. From the opening chapter when Langdon wakes up in hospital with a head injury and haunted by visions I was hooked.

Reel a hollywood renaissance novel