This is Dan Brown's second novel, after Deception Point, and before Angels and Demons, and the infamous Da Vinci Code, and the publishers have quite understandably reprinted Mr Brown's back catalogue using the "eyes peering through rip in paper" feature that became so famous on the front cover of some of the editions of the Da Vinci Code. We are also reminded that the book comes from the "#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code".

After checking online, I think the reviewers have got it right in that Deception Point is the first and weakest of the four novels, followed by this second book. Having said that, it's not a bad book. In fact, when I put aside my initial misgivings it turned into a jolly good read. Some of the reviewers suffer from the 'Da Vinci Syndrome' in so far as they can't quite grasp that it's a work of fiction, and criticise some of the technical elements with "that couldn't possibly happen"-type comments. But, as a work of fiction, the book is quite within its rights to include things that couldn't possibly be true. Having said that, however, I did think that the novel was rather formulaic in structure and contained things that even I (wearing my anti-'Da Vinci Code Syndrome' hat) didn't find quite plausible enough. To wit...

• So David Becker had never heard of the National Security Agency - the NSA? I'm a British citizen living in Taiwan and I've heard of the NSA.
• Becker climbed back onto his motorbike outside a major Spanish airport, and before we know it he's on the airfield heading towards one of the hangars. So where was security? Can anyone just simply ride onto an airfield of a major European airport?

I won't continue, mainly because the rest of the fantasy is necessary for the story to take place, and to pick holes in it would be petty. As I said earlier, I enjoyed the book once I'd settled into the right frame of mind for reading it. Now I think I'll give Deception Point a miss and go straight onto Angels and Demons.

The reason why I bought the Da Vinci Code was because I read Digital Fortress a year before and sort of liked it. DVC is such a page turner I finished it in two days while Digital Fortress took me about a week. I was pleased with myself when the Da Vinci Code became the talk of the town. Still not sure if I will like the movie with Tom Hanks; these kind of story usually does not translate well from book to movie.

I would like to be included in your podcast if possible cheers!