Inferno

Good action packed book by Dan Brown that involves many of his trademark elements of art history, religious iconography, and following the clues to find the danger. Continues with the protagonist Robert Langdon of DaVinci Code fame. Langdon wakes up, apparently having brought himself to the emergency room of a hospital after being grazed by a bullet aimed at his head. While he is still trying to figure out why he is in Florence, Italy, a woman with a gun shoots his doctor, and the English speaking doctor who was assisting helps Langdon to escape. They embark on a day-long chase through the galleries and parks of Florence seeking to find out why Langdon is here, and why he is carrying a small projector in a secret pocket of his coat, which shows an altered version of a painting showing Dante's levels of Hell. In fact, the entire plot revolves around Dante's Inferno, and of course Langdon is in a uniquely qualified position to interpret the clues. A brilliant geneticist, who recently killed himself in a dramatic jump from a high tower in Florence, has created some kind of biological pathogen set to be released on the morrow. Langdon and his "doctor" companion, Sienna, are trying to find the weapon before it releases the pathogen, which they believe may be a version of the Black Death. The geneticist is a disciple of the "Malthusian equation" which shows that humans will populate the world to the point of species extermination within just a few years, and that a drastic solution is required to stop that from happening. A provocative idea and a fast-paced read with lots of wonderful details about Italian art and architecture thrown in.