Inferno

Harvard Professor Robert Langdon returns for another globetrotting adventure in Brown’s latest. Awakening in an Italian hospital room, Langdon is suffering from short-term amnesia. He has no idea what’s happened to him during the past few days or why he’s in Italy. Before he can begin to pull his thoughts together, an assassin breaks into the hospital and attempts to kill him, sending the academic, along with a beautiful nurse, fleeing into the streets of Florence and straight into a mind-bending mystery, the key to which is buried in Dante’s masterwork, the Divine Comedy. As Langdon travels around the world, navigating his way through a labyrinth of clues, it becomes clear that he is in a race against time to stop an evil mastermind’s devilish plot that threatens the future of all humankind. Paul Michael’s narration is clear and precise; his pronunciation of each word, including large passages in Italian, is impeccable. He skillfully keeps the story moving at a strong, steady pace and balances a large cast of international characterizations with ease. He also manages to deliver Brown’s signature mountain of historical material without slowing the story to a crawl and offers an accomplished reading sure to satisfy any listener. A Doubleday hardcover. (May)