Dan Brown is a sort of Jeffrey Archer for grown ups.

This book is very much a Jeffwrey type story with lots of twists and turns and an improbable hero winning the battle (against almost all the evil forces ever thought of), and getting his girl, despite all the odds.

The story describes how a mild academic defeats the Illuminati (a secret religous brotherhood), gets to meet the Pope (and the remains of the last, murdered Pope, as well), saves the world and wins his girl.

Dan Brown carries the story off rather better than Jeffery Archer would have done. This is possibly because….

Dan Brown did actually go to university (and thus, didn’t have to lie about going to Oxford!)
• Has never, to my knowledge, consorted with prostitutes!
• Has never been involved in share purchasing scandals (think of Anglia TV).
• Has never been convicted of perjury (and has thus, never gone to jail!) Or..
• Perhaps it’s because Mr Brown doesn’t attempt to fill his books with all those “Look at me – see how clever I am” bits that Jeffwrey seems to love so much.

All in all, this is the sort of book that you would pack if you had to take a 10 hour ferry crossing from St. Malo, or perhaps, a 12 hour flight to a conference of retired proctologists at Staines.

The book won’t actually hurt you; you may, indeed, learn a bit or two – this, in itself, differentiates it from a Jeffrey Archer novel!

Having said that, if I were on that ferry (or on route to the Retired Proctologists Reunion), and had a choice of this book or a Jeffery Archer effort (chosen at random), I think that I would give them both a miss and spend my time far more productively, sticking rusty needles in my Todger!

All the best

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