Book Recommendation: The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

Posted On October 8, 2025

Hi Readers! In the past week, I had five days holiday, so I took the most advantage of it by picking a BIG BOOK to read! It had been over a year since I read any book over 500 pages. While there are tiny and mighty books, and other short books that have an impact, the reading journey is just so much more beautiful when it’s a big book! I really missed reading them. Anyway, the big book in question is Dan Brown’s latest novel ‘The Secret of Secrets’, which he has written 8 years after his previous novel ‘Origin’. I think Dan Brown is the only author that connects my young reader version to my adult reader version. Perhaps one of the few unproblematic authors who has stayed true to himself and his readers all these many years!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

The thrilling and long-awaited new Robert Langdon novel from globally bestselling author Dan Brown.

Accompanying celebrated academic, Katherine Solomon, to a lecture she’s been invited to give in Prague, Robert Langdon’s world spirals out of control when she disappears without trace from their hotel room. Far from home and well out of his comfort zone, Langdon must pit his wits against forces unknown to recover the woman he loves.

But Prague is an old and dangerous city, steeped in folklore and mystery. For over two thousand years, the tides of history have washed back and forth over it, leaving behind echoes of everything that has gone before. Little can Langdon know that he is being stalked by a spectre from that dark past. He must use all of his arcane knowledge to decipher the world around him before he too is consumed by the rings of treachery and deception that have swallowed Katherine.

Against a backdrop of vast castles, towering churches, graveyards buried twelve deep and labyrinthine underground passages, Langdon must navigate a shadow city hiding in plain sight, a city which has successfully kept its secrets for centuries and will not readily deliver them. This is a battlefield unlike any he has previously experienced, one on which he must fight not for his only life, but for the future of humanity itself.

The Secret of Secrets is Dan Brown’s first novel for over eight years and sees the stunning return of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, this time pitting his wits against a conspiracy which will test even his considerable brainpower and take him to the edge of losing all that he holds dear…

~~OVERVIEW~~

The Secret of Secrets has a lot in it; a lot of science, characters, conspiracies, action, mysteries and of course, secrets! Robert Langdon and his friend/lover Dr. Katherine Solomon are in Prague. What started as Katherine being invited to give a lecture turned into a race to live because someone wanted to destroy Katherine Solomon’s manuscript. We see them run from the local officers in the first half of the book, and then we see them exploring the reason why they didn’t want her manuscript to see the light of day.

In addition to this duo, we also have different story lines for different characters, which only come together when one third of the book is completed. There’s Dr. Brigita Gessner, who invited Katherine for a lecture. We have Sasha Vesna, who is Gessner’s lab assistant. There’s The Golêm, who claims to be the monster of Prague but protector of Sasha. From the suspicious side, we have Mr. Finch, Michael Harris – the legal attaché at the US embassy, Dana Danêk – PR at the embassy and of course Heidi Nagel – US Ambassador. The UZSI, which are the local police are mainly just two people, Captain Oldřich Janáček and Leuitenant Pavel. In New York, we have Katherine’s publisher Jonas Faukman and the tech person Alex Conan. Like I said, a lot of characters and story lines!

~~THOUGHTS~~

When it’s Dan Brown, I know I am not only reading a book. It’s an experience, and that’s glaring in this book as well. We are immersed into Prague, we are touring the sights and we can imagine them so easily. We are being told the significance of certain priceless pieces in museums or the history of the place or the artworks and books displayed. It’s wondrous to be a part of the world that Dan Brown creates. In this book, I found a perfect balance between action & mystery where Robert & Katherine are trying to stay alive, and on the other hand there was the fascinating science commentary. The transitions between past and present are unbelievably smooth, keeping us either at the edge of our seat or at a seat in a classroom, and somehow both these seats are in the same house. What’s amazing to me is that it’s not only the science talk, but it’s also about academia, history, art and literature.

As for the fascinating science concepts, I loved reading them, because where else was I going to stumble upon something so mind-boggling? It was about the field of noetics, precognition, savant syndrome, behavioral synchronization, multiple personalities and how all of these make sense with the existence of nonlocal consciousness. The way the concept was introduced after a lot of foreplay was such that even a novice at science will be able to understand it. There was complete belief from Katherine since this was in her manuscript. But, Robert was not completely convinced. So, we see their back-and-forth on this throughout the book. This became a bit tedious and quite heavy to absorb with each of their intellectually stimulated conversations. Another smart play was how a lot of the events that felt near-death were just tools of manipulation and how perfectly they worked on Robert, Katherine and even Jonas.

There was a part where we talk about country vs humankind which I thought about as well. Whenever scientists are close to technological or scientific breakthroughs, it instantly becomes a tool for national security or warfare. Never is it about the humankind, but always about the country. On a government level, it seems naïve to believe it would be any other way. But, on an empathetic level, we have Katherine rooting for the humankind. That was a nice touch as well.

However, I did not enjoy the ending. There are many mystery or psychological thriller books that end that way, so having that part into this book, even if it aligns with the overall concept, felt a bit overdone. Initially, The Golêm felt unreal and maybe even paranormal or possibly nonlocal consciousness kidnapped a random physical body. It was fun to guess till it was finally revealed.

~~BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE SECRET OF SECRETS~~

• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
• Futility, Or The Wreck of the Titan by Morgan Robertson
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
• Life After Life by Raymond A. Moody 
• How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan 
• The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House by Norman Eisen 
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America’s Faremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-Up of the CLA’s Top-Secret Stargate Program by David Morehouse
• PSI Spies: The True Story of America’s Psychic Warfare Program by Jim Marrs
• A Sorcerer’s Apprentice: A Skeptic’s Journey into the CLA’s Project Stargate and Remote Viewing by John Herlosky
• Project Stargate and Remote Viewing Technology: The CIA’s Files on Psychic Spying by Axel Balthazar
• Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler
• Remote Perceptions by Angela Martin
• The Seventh Sense by Joshua Cooper Ramo
• Anomalous Cognition by Edwin May
• Real Magic by Dean Radin
• The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley 
• The Three Faces of Eve by Corbett H. Thigpen
• Strangers in My Body by Alike Malkat
• Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

If you have read all of Dan Brown’s novels, I won’t even need to sell you on this one, because you will definitely read it. If you haven’t read any of his books before or even the ones with the character Robert Langdon, you can still pick this book first and read it. If you enjoy mysteries with a good side dose of science, then you should read this book. It’s a 670-page book, so if you have enough time, then you should go for it. But, even if you don’t, I’m sure this book will captivate you because it’s very fast-paced. And, because it’s so huge, there comes a point where some thing become repetitive or too technical. But, for the most part I had a lot of fun reading it! I have rated The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown at 4/5 stars!

Until next time,