Angels and Demons The book

Dan Brown wrote Angels & Demons in 2000. The story starts as the renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. He discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati. The Illuminati have surfaced from the shadows to carry out the final phase of their legendary vendetta against their most hated enemy: the Catholic Church.

Illuminati in Rome

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces he has hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
The main part of the story takes place in Rome, Italy. All locations are visited on our Angels and Demons tour.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vittoria follow a 400-year old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati Head Quarters, a secret location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

The author

Dan Brown was born on June 22, 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, the eldest of three children. Brown grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy, where his father was a teacher emeritus of mathematics. Brown's interest in secrets and puzzles stems from their presence in his household as a child, where codes and ciphers were the lynchpin tying together the mathematics, music and languages in which his parents worked. Dan Brown graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1982. After years spent in Los Angeles as a composer and musician and studying art history at the University in Seville, in 1993 Dan Brown returned to New Hampshire and a teaching job at his old school.
Brown published his first thriller, Digital Fortress, in 1998. He went on to write his bestseller on the secret Illuminati, Angels and Demons (2000). and Deception Point. Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings. His fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller List during its first week of release in 2003. It is now credited with being one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009. It's success has helped push sales of Brown's earlier books. In 2004, all four of his novels were on the New York Times list in the same week. (Source: Wikipedia)
Official Website: www.danbrown.com