Inferno by Dan Brown

The intrepid Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is back, this time in Florence. Only he doesn't remember how he got there or why he is there.

He got shot in the head, grazed actually, and wakes up in a Florence hospital being treated by a British woman MD with a >200 IQ and her own unique backstory. A spiked-haired woman tries to take Langdon out, but our hero escapes with help from the doc.

A shadowy consortium has targeted Langdon because he has something their client, a reclusive Swiss billionaire, wants. Of course, Langdon has no idea what it is. So he and the doc are on the run, being chased through the various halls of Florentine art treasures, helped by the doc being fluent in Italian.

Around 200 pages into this book, I quit . . . for 3 reasons, one minor, one moderate, one major.

Minor: it I want a lesson in Italian, I'll get a phrasebook.

Moderate:  It I want a tour of Florence's art/architecture history, I'll get a guidebook or go there and hire a guide.  At least a book will have photographs instead of page after page describing what Langdon is seeing or looking for.

Major: Amnesia done well can be valuable plot point. Case in point: Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity. But when the plot/chase stalls and is conveniently moved along by a snippet of a recollection or something that just pops into one's head, I start to feel like I'm being jerked around because the writer couldn't figure out a more credible way to keep the story rolling.

I'll admit, like everyone else, I read The DaVinci Code and then read Angels and Demons (which I like far better). Also read Digital Fortress and Deception Point, both of which were decent. But I wasn't so enthralled that I rushed out to get The Lost Symbol. Now I know why I tend to shy away from mass-market best sellers so prominent on the racks at supermarkets. When my pile has Daniel Woodrell (of Winter's Bone fame) and the first 2 in the Zoe Ferraris trilogy (Kingdom of Strangers) waiting,  whatever I may be reading better be pretty damn good to encourage me to let those wait; this ain't it. Others may like it and Brown has legions of fans so I won't begrudge anyone, but I can't waste my time on what I saw as a lazy effort.

ECD