Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

I never thought of mystery as my genre of choice, but this novel changed my perspective completely. Finding myself bored with Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None, I had lost faith in discovering a mystery that would keep me entertained with lots going on at once, but woven together well enough that it didn't get confusing or messy. After hearing from a friend that there was a prequel to the DaVinci Code, I decided I had to try it and see if it was as good as its partner in the series. To my surprise and delight, it turned out to be even more engaging.

As I neared the end of the rather large book, savoring every last page, not wanting the tale to end, it hit me that I had finished a 569 page book in two days. That was definitely a first. But the strange thing was I had not even noticed myself turning page after page, I was just so into the story I simply couldn't stop.

Dan Brown truly makes you feel like you're in the center of all the commotion with his unique style of changing the point of view to a different character each chapter. It made the book all the more interesting that the story line was told in sequence from one character to another, so you got to see what each one felt at different moments, versus the whole story being told from the same perspective. One moment your following Robert Langdon, the main character who gets sucked into an ongoing series of unfortunate events as he is the only one who may be able to help, and the next your reading about a flashback the Camerlengo, the pope's assistant, has recently experienced.

This tale truly ties it all in flawlessly: Robert Landgon and the woman who comes to accompany him in his attempts to stop a cruel chain of events to overthrow the papacy, Vittoria Vetra clearly have a romance brewing throughout the extent of the book, at the same time they are chasing after murders through the sites of Rome and searching through the Vatican's immense library of ancient documents.

It is my belief that this book can be a great read for anyone who happens to pick it up because it is so entertaining, however those who are scared away by the prospect of a nearly 600 page book, I urge you not to let it sit on your shelf.