Outdoes "The Da Vinci Code" hands down (*****)

Harvard symbologist and religious historian, Robert Langdon, is intrigued and somewhat puzzled to find himself peremptorily summoned to CERN, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, world's foremost research establishment in ultra high energy particle physics, to assist with a secret internal investigation of the murder of one of their staff. Leonardo Vetra - a brilliant senior physicist, a still-practicing Roman Catholic priest, and the discoverer of a method of creating and safely containing anti-matter - has been found brutally murdered with the word "Illuminati" branded on his chest.

The near light-speed, explosive pace at which Brown would have us believe the plot of "Angels and Demons" could unroll requires what, for some, will be an insurmountable suspension of credibility. But, if you can find your way over that niggling barrier, you're in for some non-stop, rollicking entertainment.

Langdon and Vittoria Vetra, the victim's beautiful daughter and similarly gifted physicist, follow the clues into the heart of the Vatican, host of an enclave of the world's cardinals convened to elect the replacement of the recently deceased pope where they must confront the current incarnation of The Illuminati, a centuries old secret brotherhood of scientists dating from the time of Galileo and the Italian Renaissance. The Illuminati carries out a high profile symbolic execution of the preferiti, the four cardinals most expected to win the papal election, and plans to use a small sample of Vetra's anti-matter to reduce Vatican City to a pile of rubble as a final close to the interminable battle between cutting edge science and Roman Catholic dogma.

Reading "Angels and Demons", I find it impossible to criticize Brown's character building skills as an author because, frankly, he didn't even try. "Angels and Demons" is plot, plot and yet more plot! But my money says it succeeds wildly and is a novel that is not only spectacularly entertaining but should avoid the visceral polarization of its readership that "The Da Vinci Code" managed to produce. I might go even further. Despite reading from the point of view of a non-practicing and disenchanted Roman Catholic, educated and believing profoundly in the value of scientific research and technology, I would nevertheless suggest that "Angels and Demons" presents a credible, balanced FICTIONAL story of a climactic confrontation between these two long-time arch-enemies. Ah, heck ... if anything, the scientists come out on the cruddy end of the stick and look more the bad guy than the church! That's OK - that provides a rather nice foil to the outlook one gets from a reading of "The Da Vinci Code"!

Enjoy!

Five stars and unconditionally recommended as a first-rate thriller!

Paul Weiss