The Book of Fate - Book 59

The Book of Fate
By Brad Meltzer

Now this was a good book, much better than the Book of Lies as it seemed more original.

Plot Summary: A failed presidential assassination attempt left one staffer dead and an aide permanently disfigured. Eight years later the latter runs into the former, which then begins a quest involving multiple agencies, good & bad guys, and secret symbols to uncover a conspiracy that reached to the heart of the government. Can our hero not only uncover the truth of that fateful day, can he handle it as his trust is rocked.

Why Read It: Fast paced action where the tension and twists are built and laid out in perfect harmony. He continues to use the short chapter writing style (see Dan Brown) which keeps pulling you through the book (it is only 2 pages until the next chapter, so I will just read to there. Soon followed by it is only 3 pages…). The final twist while not shocking, it did not occur to me that it was coming at all.

Why Skip It: It is light thriller reading, like watching a good movie. It will entertain you but it won’t change your life. You also have to suspend some logic about how truly hard a large scale conspiracy would be to pull off for that many years. Plus some plot points are to convenient, like how the crazy man escapes from the asylum. I say no way to him being so few steps from freedom. Finally the cover of the book suggests this book is a conspiracy based within Freemasonry, which is one of the reasons I picked it up; the truth is a let down. This book has about 3 paragraphs about Masonry over 508 pages. Not a problem in and of itself, but still deceptive if that is what you are looking for.

Mormon Mentions: YES. On page 111 he is mentioning famous Masons and Joseph Smith is listed. Overall it is fairly innocuous, but if you didn’t no better it gives the impression that Smith was first a Mason and then he founded the church. That is backwards as he did not become actively involved with the Masons until the Nauvoo period.