Secret of Secrets

Another Robert Langdon outing — though officially, our tweed-jacketed symbologist is just tagging along this time as the plus-one to his new girlfriend, a neuroscientist with intriguing theories about consciousness and the nature of the human "soul." Naturally, the romantic getaway lasts about as long as a Brown chapter, before Langdon stumbles headfirst into yet another distinctly American conspiracy: shadowy military-FBI cabals running esoteric experiments with hallucinogens and the outer edges of the mind. Picture Robert Langdon meets The Men Who Stare at Goats meets The Golem — and you've essentially got the pitch. The Prague setting promises atmosphere and alchemical depth, but Eco already mined this territory with far more wit and erudition decades ago, and Brown can't help making the city feel like a backdrop rather than a character. The deeper problem: I had the twist pegged by the halfway mark. Once you've read three Brown novels, you've read the algorithm — the misdirection beats, the third-act betrayal, the breathless chapter cliffhangers that resolve into shrugs. The neuroscience angle is genuinely interesting on paper, but it's wrapped in a plot machine that long ago stopped surprising anyone. One of the weaker Langdon entries. Read it for the tour of Prague; don't expect the city — or the mystery — to haunt you afterwards.