I’m one of millions who enjoyed all the Dan Brown books.

The Secret of Secrets (2025) is his latest.

If you liked the rest, you’ll probably like this one.

I do enjoy the many little scientific nuggets included.

But Brown is an infamously terrible writer:

At this stage, everything that needs to be said about Brown’s sentence-by-sentence ineptitude as a prose writer has been said.

Fear not: he’s still hopeless. It may be counted as a metafictional joke that in a novel where a favoured adjective like “elegant” can appear in two consecutive sentences, where bells are said to “blare” …

This is, in other words, a Dan Brown novel. It’s weapons-grade bollocks from beginning to end, none of it makes a lick of sense, and you’ll roar through it with entire enjoyment if you like this sort of thing. …

Guardian review

The Secret of Secrets (2025) by American author Dan Brown is the 6th instalment in the Robert Langdon series.

The Associated Press review described the novel as a 650-page thriller featuring Langdon on a dangerous quest through Prague, where he is caught up in an international race to unlock the mystery of what happens after death.

Brown once again blends suspense, philosophical themes, travelogues, codes, puzzles, and secret societies …

Too long. Tom Hanks must be exhausted.

Killers stop to join in long, philosophical discussions.

No doubt the movie will be better than the book.

First in the Kate Burkholder series. … I might continue on.

In Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and “English” residents have lived side by side for two centuries.

But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. A young Amish girl named Kate Burkholder survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer . . . but ultimately decided to leave her community.

A wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as chief of police. Her Amish roots and big-city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She’s certain she’s come to terms with her past―until the first body is discovered in a snowy field.

Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past―and expose a dark secret that could destroy her.

Amazon – Sworn to Silence (2011)

It was adapted into a TV movie called An Amish Murder.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Freida McFadden (born May 1, 1980) is the pen name of an American thriller author and practicing physician specializing in brain injury.

Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller.

In recent years I’ve begun to tire of the endless line-up of psychological thrillers. But this one is better than average.

Millie is a young woman with troubled past, having recently been fired from her job after an incident which nearly sent her back to prison.

She is unable to find work due to her criminal record and spends a month living in her car.

She jumps at an opportunity as a live-in maid for the Winchester wealthy family: Nina, her husband Andrew, and their daughter, Cecelia, who live in a luxurious estate on Long Island.

Their seemingly perfect life unravels when Millie discovers that the Winchester household hides dark secrets beneath the surface.

To me the twist was predictable.

The husband character one of the most absurdly unlikely I’ve ever read.

The ending of the book was satisfying. BUT I’m unlikely to read on in the series.

I will probably end up watching the upcoming film.