Books review : Dan Brown´s works

This weekend I completed reading Digital Fortress, by Dan Brown. This is the third book of the same author that I read in succession. After having read the Da Vinci Code, I could not resist reading Angels & Demons, and when I came across Digital Fortress, my mind said why not. While the earlier two books were very good, with elements of Thrill, Suspense and Conspiracy theories mixed up well, Digital Fortress doesnt stand in the same breadth. It may be owing to the fact that it was the first of the series written by the author, and Dan Brown seems to have bettered in the subsequent ones.

After having read these 3 books, a strange sense of deja vu prevailed on me. I think all the 3 follow a basic template in their story plots. Let me share some of these thoughts here.

• The male lead is a professor/academic/a scholar of some kind, who is either invloved in the chase or is referred to for helping in finding clues. (David Becker - Digital Fortress, Robert Langdon - Angels & Demons, Da Vinci Code)
• The female protoganist is beautiful, highly intelligent and a strong character of exceptional talent in a mathematics-related field of specialisation. (Susan Fletcher- Digital Fortress, Vittoria Vetra - Angels & Demons, Sophie Neveu - Da Vinci Code)
• There is always a prominent cripple, who is essential to the plot and this disability is used by the characters for carrying weapons etc. (Ensei Tankado - Digital Fortress, Maximillian Kohler - Angels & Demons, Sir Leigh Teabing - Da Vinci Code)
• The major killings in the story are carried out by a hired assassin/mercenary and he does this job with clinical dexterity and ruthless cold bloodednes.(Hulohot - Digital Fortress, Hassassin - Angels & Demons, Silas - Da Vinci Code)
• There is a chase sequence somewhere before the climax, with the hunter pursuing the protoganists.
• All the events in the story take place in a small time frame of around 24 hours, with the male protoganist doing the exhaustive field travails. The climax takes place on some events taking place on a deadline/timer ticking etc. (The pass key - Digital Fortress, the canister bomb - Angels & Demons)
• The mastermind behind the killings/events turns out to be a salient figure for most of the book, and supposedly against the motives behind the murders. (Strathmore - Digital Fortress, the Camerlengo - Angels & Demons, Sir Leigh Teabing - Da Vinci Code)

All said and done, I liked the books a lot. My personal favourite among them is Angels & Demons. The Da Vinci Code movie adaptation is being released next month, the trailers looks promising enough. Lets see how Tom Hanks does justice to Robert Langdon.