From a Dan Brown expert, a handy, reader-friendly guide to 33 critical topics covered in The Lost Symbol , including photos, illustrations, and reference links for further exploration.

There’s so much information and so many facts contained in Dan Brown’s thrilling new page-turner that many readers need a quick reference guide to the history, geography, art and architecture, cryptology, science, people and places in the novel. Professor Beyer, who has taught seminars and produced on-line texts to Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons , started to work on this Lost Symbol companion guide three years ago in anticipation of its subject matter.

The seven sections are organized by theme and follow the plot of the story:

* People and Places: from Robert Langdon to the mysterious Smithsonian Museum Support Center

*The District of Columbia: the creation and design of Washington, D.C., and its Masonic influences

*Art and Architecture: from the Apotheosis of Washington to the Obelisk and Pyramid

*Cryptology: from Kryptos to magic squares

*Modern Science: from Noetics to modern-day physics

*Freemasonry: from origins and Founding Fathers to its symbols (including the significance of the number 33)

*The Secret Teachings: from The Hermetic Tradition to Bacon and The Bible