Still Waiting for The Lost Symbol?

Remember when The Da Vinci Code came out and it was so popular other authors tried to cash in by writing books that either discredited Dan Brown's research or capitalized on his style? Some were good, some were bad, but they fed people's need for more.

Well, here we are again, a new Dan Brown book is on the shelves, and perhaps you, like me, are still waiting for a copy to come in for you. Or maybe you already read it and need another suspense thriller with reference to history, art, religion, and politics.

Fortunately, the Da Vinci Code copycats aren't the only ones with this writing style. In fact, there are several authors who were writing similar thrillers for years before Dan Brown.

My personal favorite is Katherine Neville, who wrote a book in the 1970s called The Eight, about an ancient chess service that held a formula within its board that was alleged to provide absolute power. The sequel, The Fire, came out last year. Arlington Public Library owns both titles.

Another author who immediately reminds me of Dan Brown is Steve Berry. Berry weaves his thrillers around historical events with an imagined twist and a protagonist who appears in more than one book. Some of the topics Berry builds his plots around include the miracle at Fatima, the last of the Romanovs of Russia, the library at Alexandria, and the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.

Whenever you don't know what to read next, you can always find more read-alikes on NoveList, a database provided by Arlington Public Library through our Website. Novelist also recommends authors John Case and Daniel Silva for Dan Brown fans.