Like the “cryptex” in “Da Vinci Code,” an antique object aids Langdon and Katherine on a hunt across - and beneath - the city, a hunt in which they are helped - and hindered - by characters including the blind dean of Washington’s National Cathedral and the gnomic director of the CIA’s Office of Security, Inoue Sato (don’t mess with her).Īll of this is going to feel very familiar to readers of the previous Langdon books, even though Brown has shifted from foreign places to plant his thriller firmly on American soil. It seems Mal’akh gained the trust not only of Peter but also of Peter’s sister Katherine, a scientist through whom Brown introduces the theme of science versus magic - not to mention the possibility that a wedding might be in Langdon’s future. That educated, unstable person calls himself Mal’akh (“angel” in Hebrew), and in him Brown gives us a villain as unique, zealous and eerie as the albino monk Silas in “Code.” Mal’akh is a muscled, tattooed eunuch - a chameleon-like figure who seeks a hidden Masonic pyramid because, the legend goes, it contains the power of transformation (a common quest, Brown reminds us, in the ancient world).

the Hand of the Mysteries is a sacred invitation. “This hand is proof that he is well versed in the Mysteries as well as their code of secrecy. “t seems the man we are dealing with, in addition to being mentally unstable, is also highly educated,” Langdon says. As horrific as this is, Langdon recognizes that the grisly object resembles something called “the Hand of the Mysteries.” The “invitation” has been faked by an individual who wants our hero to find something that has been conspicuously positioned - a severed hand (Solomon’s), marked with Masonic tattoos and propped to point to an 1865 painting of George Washington depicted as a pagan god. The moment he enters the rotunda, however, Langdon discovers there is no speech. Langdon arrives in Washington D.C., invited by his wealthy friend Peter Solomon, a high-ranking Mason, to deliver a speech in the Capitol building.

Mal akh the lost symbol