Angels & Demons

After The Da Vinci Code, I was kinda in the zone for more, so I read another Dan Brown book – Angels & Demons. It was basically the same book except that it was set in Italy instead of France, and involved the Illuminati instead of the Priory of Sion. Here's a dot point summary which could easily be describing either novel:

• prominent and respected man is brutally murdered by a mysterious assassin
• mysterious assassin takes orders from an even more mysterious leader, who only contacts the assassin by phone and whose identity and name are unknown to the assassin
• weirdness of the murder scene suggests a secret society is involved
• young female relative of the victim teams up with Robert Langdon (professor from Harvard who's an expert on secret societies and religious symbology) to solve the mystery
• young female relative is attractive, intelligent, successful and headstrong
• some characters who initially seem to be 'the good guys' turn out not to be, and vice versa
• lots of references to religious and historial artefacts, symbology and locations
• occasional references to potential romantic tension between the male and female protagonist
• male and female protagonist must solve a series of puzzles, codes, cryptic messages, etc. to get to the bottom of things
• male and female protagonist solve lots of puzzles, codes, cryptic messages, etc. and get to the bottom of things

I think that about sums it up.