Book Review — “The Secret of Secrets” by Dan Brown

If you love thrillers, read this book.

I have been a Dan Brown devotee for more than two decades. On the right side of my sitting room is a small shelf filled with his books, missing only the one a neighbor borrowed and never returned before relocating. I discovered him in the early 2000s with The Da Vinci Code. That novel was such an electric experience that I read it in two days flat. Now, twenty years later, I approached The Secret of Secrets, his sixth Robert Langdon novel, with both excitement and caution.

This 650-page thriller, released this month, pulled me in with the same energy I felt years ago, though life has slowed my pace. It took me many more days to finish, not because the book dragged, but because I need have a family to be responsible for and need proper sleep. Despite that, I found myself sneaking in chapters at every spare moment. Brown knows how to make pages turn.

From the start, The Secret of Secrets signals a return to form. The novel combines science, history, and religion with a sharp edge. Brown’s signature trick — blurring fact and speculation — feels alive again. More than once I paused mid-chapter to look up a reference to a legend, a piece of architecture, or a cutting-edge scientific discovery. Few writers manage to build thrillers that double as treasure hunts of knowledge…