Dan Brown and The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown has taken five years to write his latest book, but only last week did he reveal the title. However, the title The Lost Symbol is so enigmatic that it tells us nothing about the story. Dan Brown's first new book since The Da Vinci Code goes on sale on 15 September and is expected to sell millions of copies. As usual, it involves a global cult and a race against time to decipher a secret code.

"The Lost Symbol is a brilliant thriller," Sonny Mehta, chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Brown's US publisher, told The Times. "Dan Brown's talent for storytelling, infused with history and intrigue, is on full display in this new book."

The story takes place over 12 hours and again features the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. The novel is set in the US and concerns freemasonry — revolving around a secret society in the same way as The Da Vinci Code focused on the religious organization Opus Dei, and Angels & Demons exposed a secret society called the Illuminati. Brown's books have upset both the Catholic Church and lovers of good English prose, but their protests have been silenced by record-breaking sales.

Brown's last four novels are now the first, second, third and fourth best-selling adult paperback novels in history, according to Nielsen Bookscan. Interest in The Lost Symbol will increase further next month with the premiere of a film version of Angels & Demons. Like The Da Vinci Code, it stars Tom Hanks.