If you've ever read anything by Dan Brown, you know exactly what to expect: paper-thin characters, a ridiculous villain, and a plot that jumps out of the gate at 60 m.p.h., holding the cruise control there right through to the last page. But you also get just enough stimulation to keep you turning pages. Yeah, the puzzles are trivial. Yeah, the plotting is absurd. Yeah, it's not great writing.

I enjoy a Dan Brown book in the same way I enjoy a bag of potato chips: it's totally empty calories and I hate myself a little for consuming it, but I do enjoy one now and then.