Despite being a formulaic book that is a bit predictable, I enjoyed reading The Lost Symbol. I LOVE puzzles, and this book is one giant puzzle. Just like the Da Vinci Code, the clues are all coded in symbols and hidden in plain sight - one just has to know what they are looking for to decipher them. Of course, the symbols and clues aren't things I know much of anything about, but it's still fun trying to fit the pieces together. This story takes place in Washington D. C., a place I've only visited once. But I still felt more familiar with the terrain, objects and clues than I did in the Da Vinci Code. The internet comes in pretty handy when reading these books. I love being able to use Google to bring up an image of The Smithsonian, Washington memorial, layout of D.C. etc. It helps to build an accurate mental picture of what is going on in the story.
There were a couple of things that kept nagging at me, though. 1. When the Soloman Masonic ring is used to create a wax seal (which is illustrated on the cover), the image is of the sigil with a 33 and "ordo ab chao" printed in wax. Well, since this is what the ring says, makes sense. Except it should be backwards in the wax since it is a negative casting. Small things like this bother me because Dan Brown has done so much research on symbols and crafting these layers and layers of clues for the characters and readers to decipher. Something like this shouldn't slip through the cracks, as it ruins a bit of the thrill. 2. I couldn't believe the victim's own sister was so willing to disregard centures of work her family had done to hide the secret. If generations upon generations of Solomen men were powerful Free Masons, why were the women not involved in Eastern Star, or at least more sympathetic to the family's duty to the Masonic organization? So, that seemed a bit of a stretch. 3. I found parts of the story predictable (such as the identity of the villian) and the ending a little flat. I won't give anything away, but felt that the way things ended with the villian was a cop out aimed at giving more of a happy ending. After all the running around and beating the clock kind of theme, the big secret is revealed to Robert Langdon in a most undramatic way. Even the secret itself is rather undramatic: the secret isn't much of a secret.
There's a decent amount of violence, but not a lot of gore, as you would expect. However, there is a lot of stuff in this book that is a bit of a creep-out factor, but it's not there just for kicks - it ultimately builds up the story.