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Dan Brown fans queued from early this morning outside Waterstones Piccadilly in central London ahead of the store's 8am opening to sell copies of Inferno, published today (14th May).
Ben Morgan, a bookseller from Foyles [pictured] who had been waiting in the queue for three hours, said: "I collect first edition signed books so I wanted to make sure I got Dan Brown's. There are only 200 copies so I needed to get here early. I am a fan of his and I'm looking forward to getting into it."
Fan Jabril Muhammad said: "I have been here since 7am. I really enjoyed his last book so I wanted to make sure I got this one as early as possible. I hope it will be more of the same, intriguing and thrilling."
Waterstones spokesperson Jon Howells admitted he had been up until the early hours of the morning reading a review copy of Inferno. He said: "I think Dan Brown's fans will love it. It is very topical, and without giving too much away, it contains a subject that was only in the news a few weeks ago... I also like the fact that it was set in Florence." He added: "It is a beautifully produced book, with attention to detail on the cover and inside the cover. They have done a very good job on it."
The first reviews of Robert Langdon's latest adventure, as he solves clues on a race to prevent a lunatic scientist releasing a deadly virus, suggest a return to a familiar combination of fast-paced plotting and dubious prose.
The Guardian's reviewer noted that he had to sign "a two-page nondisclosure agreement couched in doom-laden legalese" to obtain his review copy, and described the novel as
"engineered with miraculous efficiency, a tasty cocktail of high culture and low thrills", adding "The pages fly by". The review also commented: "Brown's prose style retains its much-loved originality ("a powerfully built woman effortlessly unstraddled her BMW motorcycle").
The Daily Telegraph hailed a "new and welcome moral ambiguity" to his story. However the review concluded Inferno is Brown's worst book, because "his ambition wildly exceeds his ability". The reviewer noted: "As a stylist Brown gets better and better. Where once he was abysmal he is now just very poor."
The Daily Mail labelled the book "bilge, but one hell of a page turner", and commented: "You can see that, as he wrote his well-paced tale, Dan Brown was thinking of exotic film locations for the movie that is bound to follow."