Surely you remember Robert Langdon — the symbologist from Harvard who had the starring role in Dan Brown’s blockbuster from 2003, "The Da Vinci Code." Now, Langdon returns, to star in "The Lost Symbol," surely another blockbuster.

This tale opens early one night in Washington, in the rotunda of the Capitol, where Langdon has been lured under false pretenses. There, on the floor of the rotunda, sits a bloody human hand, its thumb and index finger pointed upward, its fingers tattooed with mysterious symbols — and its ring finger bearing a ring from the pinnacle rank of the Masonic Order, the 33rd Degree.

With that, author Brown yanks readers into a snipe hunt that will last all night and range all across Washington. You won’t want to know too many plot details. Suffice it to say that a crazed evil genius is after a secret that the CIA also wants — and that the secret has to do with the wisdom of ancient mystics, as handed down by the Masons.

Or something like that. "The Lost Symbol" drifts for long stretches into quasi-New Age babbling. Mind you, the book packs lots of wham-bam violence, with cliff-hanger chapter endings and lots of dialogue in oh-my-God italics. It also teems with the fascinating code-breaking that helped to propel "The Da Vinci" onto the best-seller list, seemingly forever.

Once you start on this search for the wisdom of the ancient mystics, you’ll keep marching along for all 509 pages. But watch out for those New Age swamps. A sample:

"Langdon gave a tired chuckle. ‘I’m not sure I entirely understand it myself.’ He glanced up at the top of the monument. ‘Your brother said quite a few things tonight that I couldn’t get my mind around.’

" ‘Let me guess,’ Katherine said. ‘Ancient Mysteries, science, and the Holy Scriptures?’

" ‘Bingo.’"

You, too, may have problems getting your mind around those Ancient Mysteries, science, and the Holy Scriptures.

And speaking of those Scriptures … "The Da Vinci Code" drew fire from some religious leaders for its account of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdelene. I suspect that this book’s interpretation of the relationship between God and man may raise those same clerical eyebrows. And what will the Masons think? Is Brown really giving away some of their deepest secrets?

Ah, well. If Brown stands among the handful of authors who are impervious to negative reviews — think Tom Clancy, or Jacqueline Susann, among others — neither the Masons nor the Vatican will stop "The Lost Symbol" from flying off bookstore shelves.

My copy came from such a bookstore. Imbedded in the fold between Pages 420 and 421 is a plastic strip with a bar code.

Is Brown keeping track of me?

Harry Levins of Manchester retired in 2007 as senior writer of the Post-Dispatch