A return to Europe for Brown and a return to form

In 2009, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which was set in Washington, was met with a lukewarm reception. Perhaps the winning formula he’d struck upon in the best-selling Da Vinci Code and its sequel Angels And Demons had started to seem tired — the novelty had worn off.

With Inferno, Brown wisely returns the action to Europe, the setting for his first two books, but the formula is the same: Langdon meets a very attractive, intelligent young woman (think Da Vinci Code’s Sophie Neveu) called Dr Sienna Brooks and together the pair try to unravel a mystery with its roots in ancient literature to save the world from a deadly plague, while escaping from some evil types who are trying to kill them.