Nikki Furrer at Pudd’nhead Books in Webster Groves says of “The Lost Symbol,” which goes on sale Tuesday: “You know it’s not well-written, you know the story and characters and plot are beyond ridiculous, and you still can’t put it down.”

As an independent bookseller, she had to order 30 copies of the book to get it in time for Tuesday. Big box and online sellers are offering the $29.95 book at about $16.

But Furrer says she’ll give it away free starting tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 15) to book lovers who buy $100 worth of other books at one time. (Independent booksellers usually can’t afford to offer the deep discounts on individual books that chain stores can.)  

In the meantime, The New York Times’ embargo-breaking review Sunday calls the book “sexy.” Dan Brown’s rarely accused of being sexy. “The Da Vinci Code” had less sex than the average suspense novel.

Here’s what Janet Maslin says: 

“So much for safe predictions. What no one could guess, despite all advance hints about setting and subject matter, was whether Mr. Brown could recapture his love of the game. Could he still tell a breathless treasure-hunt story? Could he lard it with weirdly illuminating minutiae? Could he turn some form of profound wisdom into a pretext for escapist fun? By now his own formula has been damaged by so much copycatting that it’s all but impossible for anyone to get it right.

“Too many popular authors (Thomas Harris) have followed huge hits (“The Silence of the Lambs”) with terrible embarrassments (“Hannibal”). Mr. Brown hasn’t done that. Instead, he’s bringing sexy back to a genre that had been left for dead.”

Whether the suspense genre has been “left for dead” is another issue, but do you think Dan Brown’s books are edgy or sexy? Surely Maslin really means sexy as “excitingly appealing.” What do you think?