Title: Angels and Demons

Author: Dan Brown

Publisher and Date of Publication: Corgi Books 2001

Paperback: 620 pages

Kohler, the invalid director of CERN, has just stumbled on the corpse of Vetra, a scientist who has discovered antimatter. He sends for the dead scientist's daughter as well as Langdon. a Harvard professor who specializes on religious symbology. He wants the Harvard professor to unravel the symbol that is branded on the corpse of the murdered scientist.

Langdon identifies the symbol as the illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years. It has suddenly resurfaced to continue its vendetta against the Catholic Church.

About this time, the College of Cardinals meets in Rome to elect a new pope. Hidden somewhere in the Vatican City is a bomb that can annihilate the entire city. While the conclave goes on. the four cardinals earmarked for the top job disappear without a trace.

Then Vittoria. together with Langdon, sets about trying to track down the secret refuge of the ancient illuminati, the only hope of averting the imminent catastrophe. One by one, the four cardinals are killed with distinctive symbols of the illuminati branded on their corpses.

When Carlo Ventresca, the camerlengo to the late Pope, gets news of the impending calamity, he decides to act immediately. He removes the cardinals to a safer place, while he engages the head of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican City on how to deal with the problem.

As the entire world awaits the election of the new pope, Carlo finds out the late Pope has a son. He is beside himself with anger at being betrayed by the late Pope whom he considers to be infallible. But he is to realize later that he is the very son of the late Pope fathered through artificial insemination.

Eventually. Carlo, Langdon and Vittoria find the bomb and remove it to dispose it in the open sea.

In this novel, Dan Brown relates the story of the rivalry between science and religion. We get the impression in this story that both science and religion are different ways of arriving at the truth.

It is full of suspensive drama will keep you on the edge of your seat.

It is available at TIMBOOKTOO, Tel 4494345.