As a tourist guide, Dan Brown's Inferno surpasses Fromers any day. Anything you ever wanted to know about Florence and Venice is described in brilliant detail, leaving nothing to the imagination. As a gripping yarn, however, Inferno is miles off course. It's riddled with repetition, leaving readers with the distinct impression that Mr. Brown was struggling to find content for the publisher. Without wishing to ruin the story for fans of Dan Brown, the plot follows Robert Langden's efforts to thwart a mad scientist hell bent on infesting the human race with an ingenious pandemic virus. The plot twists here, vaults there and re-writes itself more than once. Inferno is a far cry from Dan Brown's earlier efforts, making me wonder if his writing career has peaked early.