Angels&Demons by Dan Brown

When Robert Langdon, American symbologist at Havard, is woken up at the crack of dawn by a phone call, he isn't expecting one from Maximillian Kohler, Dierector of CERN (the worlds top nuclear reseach centre, home to thousands of scientists from all over the globe) nor an epic adventure that will soon follow. At the reserch facility, a murder has occured. Physist, Lepnardo Vetra has been branded with an ambigram of the most powerful, efficent and most massive anti-Catholic organization- Illuminati. His daughter Vittoria rushes to join them and reveals stunning results concerning a secret project she and her father have been working on.

Apparently, Leonardo recreated a mini-scale version of the Big Bang and from it, samples of anti-matter. The largest being a quarter of a gram, enough to incinerate nine city blocks and devastating destruction. However, someone has stolen it and the Swiss Guard have just located the the canister-in Vatican City- the city of the pope. Unless, Langdon and Vittoria manage to bring the time bomb back before midnight, it will detonate. Therefore, blowing up the smallest and one of the most sacred countries in the world as well as all the cardinals inside and thousands of precious sculptures, sacred artefacts etc. A raging religious conflict may soon come to an ultimate end but who will be the winner?

As soon as I read less than one fifth of this novel, I noticed many similarities that appear in "The Da Vinci Code",however, as the plot progresses, you will realize that it is much more fast-paced, exciting and original. Dan Brown excellently builds up the tension through the chase towards the end and use of detailed charactersation is present. One of the characters who seemed innocent and sane turned out to be the manipulative mastermind behind everything. If you enjoy mystery/thriller tales with a mild dose of science-fiction then I would recommend this to you.