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SECRETS OF ANGELS & DEMONS
THE UNAUTHORIZED GUIDE TO THE BESTSELLING NOVEL

Tales of the billion-dollar industry spawned by “The Da Vinci Code” (DVC), the bestseller that featured author Dan Brown’s signature weaving of rich and historically important ideas into the heart of a murder mystery, are now legendary.  Yet few realize that after experiencing only modest sales when first published in 2000, Brown’s earlier murder mystery, “Angels & Demons,” wrote its own spectacular chapter in the annals of publishing history.  Riding DVC’s coattails in 2004, the late-blooming “Angels & Demons” shot up both paperback and hardcover fiction bestseller lists with more than five million copies in print today.  What’s more, many of Brown’s hardcore fans swear that “Angels & Demons,” the book that first introduced Robert Langdon, DVC’s protagonist whose highly anticipated return is slated for next year when Brown publishes “The Solomon Key,” is an even richer, more satisfying read than DVC.   

Now Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, the team behind the New York Times bestseller “Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Da Vinci Code,returns with a new factual guide to “Angels & Demons,” Dan Brown’s best-selling prequel to “The Da Vinci Code. SECRETS OF ANGELS & DEMONS: The Unauthorized Guide to the Bestselling Novel (CDS Books; $23.95 hardcover; January 2005), the newest book in the “Secrets” series, not only enriches the experience of the Dan Brown reader, but bridges a very real information gap, sorting fact from fiction in Brown’s trademark novel blending of real aspects of history, art, and religion with invented fantasy. 

By all accounts, Burstein and de Keijzer have tapped an amazing readership with their “Secrets” series, satisfying a real hunger for an authoritative guide to Brown’s trademark blending of factual aspects of history, art, and religion with invented fantasy.  “Secrets of the Code,” published earlier this year, has already sold more than 300,000 copies, spent more than 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and spawned more than 20 foreign editions.

In SECRETS OF ANGELS & DEMONS, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Dan Burstein and co-editor Arne de Keijzer have carefully gathered original essays, interviews and other contributions from an impressive roster of scholars, authors and journalists from a range of disciplines as various as science, history, theology, Baroque art, biometrics, Vatican politics, and forensic medicine.  These experts weigh in on some of the deeper issues raised, but not always discussed realistically or in-depth, in Dan Brown’s fiction.

  • The Vatican: An Insider’s View Greg Tobin, expert on the papal selection process; Amy Bernstein, writer and academic; Steve Waldman, editor-in-chief, Beliefnet; Father Richard McBrien, Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame; Father John O’Malley, Weston Jesuit School of Theology. 
  • Galileo: The Pious Heretic John Castro, writer; Owen Gingerich, Harvard University; Steve Harris, physicist and historian of science; Wade Rowland, author of Galileo’s Mistake; Marcelo Gleiser, physicist and Fermi Lab fellow; Stephan Herrera, MIT’s Technology Review.
  • Conspiracies and Conspirators: The Illuminati Illuminated George Johnson, New York Times science writer; Michael Barkun, expert on conspiracy theory; James Wasserman, expert on the Assassins, Templars, and Illuminati; Alexandra Robbins, New York Times bestselling author of a book about Yale’s Skull & Bones society; Robert Anton Wilson, futurist and co-author of the Illuminatus! Trilogy.
  • Two Windows on the Same Universe? The Science vs. Religion Discussion George Johnson, New York Times science writer; Paul Davies, author of The Mind of God; Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium and author, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution; Richard Dawkins, evolutionist and author of The Blind Watchmaker; Dean Hamer, author of The God Gene; Josh Wolfe, editor of the Nanotech Report.
  • Robert Langdon’s Rome: Art and Architecture Tod Marder, author of Bernini and the Art of Architecture; Mark S. Weil, Bernini expert; George Lechner, professor of Italian art and culture; Michael Herrera, writer; Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, professor of religious art; David Downie, travel writer; Susan Sanders, executive director of the Institute of Design and Culture in Rome.
  • Science and Technology of “Angels & Demons” Dr. Cyril Wecht, Allegheny County Coroner; James Carlisle, Ph.D. and Jennifer Carlisle, biometrics experts; David Shugarts, investigative reporter; Marcelo Gleiser, physicist and Fermi Lab fellow; Mark Midbon, senior programmer/analyst at the University of Wisconsin; Stephan Herrera, MIT’s Technology Review; Amir Aczel, author of Entanglement.
  • Angels & Demons”, Dan Brown, and the Art of Fictionalizing “Fact” David Shugarts, investigative reporter; Geoffrey K. Pullum, professor of linguistics; Glenn W. Erickson, philosopher; Leigh-Ann Gerow, cultofdanbrown.com; Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, professor of religious art. 

 

In addition to all these experts, Burstein and his team have followed the trail of some exciting clues about the closely guarded background and storyline in Brown’s widely anticipated next novel, “The Solomon Key.”  Dan Brown’s new and as yet unpublished book is likely to be set on American soil, reveals Burstein, and focuses primarily on the Freemasons, the secretive fraternity that counted some of our nation's founding fathers as members, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.  

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SECRETS OF ANGELS AND DEMONS

The Unauthorized Guide to the Bestselling Novel
Edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer
CDS Books $23.95 hardcover
January 2005 ISBN 1-59315-140-3; 398 pages?

REVISION NEEDED HERE Question mark from Arne and Dan

ABOUT DAN BURSTEIN AND ARNE DE KEIJZER

Dan Burstein is an award-wining journalist, author, and venture capitalist. His most recent book, Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Da Vinci Code, was a New York Times best-selling blockbuster in 2004 and is currently appearing in 20 international editions. The author of six prior books on subjects ranging from China to the birth of the internet, his next book is BLOG! How the Web’s New Mavericks Are Changing Our World (CDS, 2005). Burstein is the founder of Millennium Technology Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm.

Arne de Keijzer’s published work has ranged over many disciplines, from international business to travel, and technology to boating. He was managing editor of Secrets of the Code.  He and Dan Burstein were co-authors of Big Dragon, a look at China’s economic and political future and its impact on the world.  The two co-authors have also recently launched their own innovative publishing enterprise, Squibnocket Partners.