Conspiracy Theory

This May saw the release of the fourth book in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, Inferno. Set in Italy, the novel centers around Langdon, a Harvard professor of symbology (a fictional academic discipline, but go with it -- it's part of the fun). Langdon's in town to stop the release of a newly-developed strain of bubonic plague; while he's there, he finds himself drawn into a mystery at the heart of Dante's famous literary masterpiece. Surrounded by artistic, secret passageways, and cutting-edge science, Langdon must figure out who to trust even as he works to solve the mysteries of Dante's Inferno.

Like its predecessors -- Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol -- Brown's latest entry in the Robert Langdon series is all about puzzles, secrets, and historical conspiracies. When Brown burst onto the bestseller list with The Da Vinci Code, it was neither his first novel nor his first entry in the Langdon series -- but it was the novel that catapulted him to national attention. The Da Vinci Code, with its blend of thriller intrigue and alternate history, offered up the idea of a secret conspiracy, millennia old, that captivated and thrilled fans with its unique twists on conspiracy theories.

Since then, there have been plenty of other titles released in the Da Vinci Code vein, leaving readers who are fans of Brown with more "historical conspiracy" fiction to whet their appetites. So if you're one of those fans of Brown's latest, check out these other conspiracy thrillers:

-- The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry.

Ex–Justice Department agent Cotton Malone has just found out that his father didn't die in 1971 on a nuclear submarine in the Mid-Atlantic. His father was, instead, on a top-secret mission to the Antarctic. On a quest to find out the truth, Malone is joined by twin sisters Dorothea and Christl (whose own father also disappeared on the same mission). The answers take them to Charlemagne’s tomb, where they uncover clues about a horrifying Nazi conspiracy.

-- The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper.

Instead of symbology, Professor David Ullman studies "demonic literature" -- which includes such tomes as Milton's Paradise Lost. Still, Ullman himself is a non-believer -- at least until a trip with his twelve-year-old daughter to Venice. Now Ullman is on a quest to find and rescue his daughter ... from the Underworld itself.

-- Sanctus by Simon Toyne.

Reporter Liv Adamsen -- along with the rest of the world -- has just seen a man climb the mountain called Citadel, the oldest inhabited place on the planet. On a quest to discover what happened to her long-lost brother, Adamsen journeys to Turkey, only to discover that the mysterious climb has touched off an unstoppable chain of events. It's something that the Sancti, a group of secretive monks, will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

-- The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small.

Grad student Grant Matthews is on a quest to discover the hidden roots of early Christianity. He never expected a 2,000-year-old story of one pilgrim's journey through India, to ignite a controversy that will put his own life in danger.

-- Relic by Tom Egeland.

"The Norwegian Da Vinci Code?" Translated from the original Norwegian, the book features albino archaeologist Bjørn Beltø, determined to get to the truth of the ancient document unearthed in a golden tomb. While the plot will be familiar to Da Vinci Code fans, Beltø's quirks makes him a fresh and unique character in his own right.

-- The Last Ember by Daniel Levin.

Once a doctoral candidate in classic literature, Jonathan Marcus ultimately became a lawyer. When an upcoming case takes him to Rome, he never expected to stumble across a hidden message that had been previously lost in a fragment of an ancient tomb. His discovery takes him on a mission to stop the efforts of those who would rewrite history.

-- 12.21 by Dustin Thomason.

Okay, the world didn't end on December 12, 2012 after all. Still, the premise of this novel makes for a fun conspiracy read. Two weeks before the fateful date, researcher Chel Manu is handed a codex from a mysterious stranger that purports to explain what happened to the Mayan civilization. And, if the discovery is to be believed, that catastrophe is about to happen a second time.

-- The School of Night by Louis Bayard.

The School of Night was a secret gathering of five brilliant scholars during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Four centuries later, disgraced scholar Henry Cavendish has been sent on a mission to recover a stolen letter. But whatever the letter contains -- the secret formula for alchemy, the path to a hidden treasure, or merely the truth about the School of Night -- there are others who will stop at nothing to gain the letter for themselves.

-- Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell.

It's every Shakespearean's dream: an uncovered lost work of Shakespeare's. But the night when the reconstructed Globe Theater is burnt to the ground, Shakespearean scholar Kate Stanley is given a piece of an unexpected puzzle by her mentor, Rosalind Howard. Then Howard winds up dead. Soon, Stanley is running across the world as she struggles to unlock the clues in Shakespeare's plays and uncover the answer to one of the greatest secrets in history.

-- The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury.

Despite the building's rich history, FBI agent Sean Reilly never expected to see four Knights Templar -- on horseback! -- charge into the Metropolitan Museum. The "Knights" broke in to steal an unusual medieval artifact, an ancient decoder. Joined by archaeologist Tess Chaykin, Reilly finds himself caught in the center of a deadly race to recover the lost artifact -- and undercover the truth behind a mystery that's been centuries in the making.



-- Post by Ms. B