Published: 2025
Author: Dan Brown
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
Audience: Grades 9–12, Adult
Number of Stars: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Goodreads Link: The Secret of Secrets
Content Warnings: Murder, supernatural elements, and violence.
Publisher’s Summary
Robert Langdon is back in the long-awaited new race-against-time thriller from the global bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.
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…
Full Review
True to form, Dan Brown continues his craft of weaving truth and history with fiction. I am a huge fan and have read all of his previous novels; I love his ability to unlock previously unknown historical events and people for the reader. In this installment, Brown introduces the reader to Prague’s major landmarks and important pieces of the city’s heritage. It genuinely makes me want to visit!
As usual, Brown has done his research. This is the element I would most want to bring into the classroom: the recognition that to create a work of art, significant time and investment are required. Students need to see the amount of effort that goes into investigating and interviewing for a book to have a solid foundation. This research allows Brown to realistically bring together the real and the unreal. It would be a wonderful project for a creative writing course to have students conduct similar deep-dive research into a city or country of their choosing to build their own narrative world.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Creative Writing (Research-Based Fiction): As suggested, have students select a city they’ve never visited. Their task is to research five specific historical landmarks and write a scene where a character must find a hidden object using only the “secrets” or “symbols” found at those locations.
- World History (The Bohemian Reformation): Explore the history of Prague as a center of religious and scientific tension. How did the intersection of early science (alchemy) and religion shape the city?
- Art History (Symbology): Dan Brown’s work is centered on Iconography. Have students study common architectural symbols found in Gothic cathedrals and what they communicated to a mostly illiterate public in the Middle Ages.
- Media Studies: Discuss the “Dan Brown Formula.” Why are his books consistently bestsellers and successful films? Analyze the pacing, the “ticking clock” element, and the use of cliffhangers.
