Whenever a new book has the name “Dan Brown” attached to it, its success is virtually guaranteed.

Brown’s books have sold over 80 million copies worldwide, and the film adaptations of his novels “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons” have grossed over $1 billion to date.

So it’s hardly a surprise that Brown’s newest book, “The Lost Symbol,” had nearly as much media attention surrounding its release as did the “Harry Potter” series.

In the book, Brown gives his globetrotting, hyper-idealized Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon the “National Treasure” treatment, sending him to Washington, D.C., to uncover the latest conspiracy.

The conspiracy du jour is the Freemason organization. One of its highest members, Langdon’s friend Peter Solomon, has just been kidnapped by a tattoo-wearing, pagan-ritual-participating assassin whose goal is to bring darkness to the earth.

Langdon and Solomon’s sister Katherine, a scientist whose study involves unlocking the hidden potential of the human mind, must race against time, the CIA and the assassin to save Peter, the American government and the hope of human progress.

All the classic and increasingly clichéd elements of a Brown thriller are here: the brief chapters ending in cliffhangers, the plot twists every few pages, the attachment of cryptographic significance to works of art, and italics.

Although Brown does overuse these elements of his style, it’s worth remembering that much of the cliché comes from authors who have produced clones of the Brown approach, and Brown’s books remain the original product to a certain degree.

Brown also puts such an emphasis on attention to detail that the unrealistic elements of his plot particularly stand out. His characters dodge the CIA, defeat the most advanced security of our nation’s capital and arouse the academic interests of a lecture of high school students to such a degree that they spontaneously applaud the speaker.

Despite these formulaic devices, “The Lost Symbol” is thoroughly engrossing and wouldn’t be the same without Brown’s distinctive style.

Brown’s books seem to have grown up over time: “The Lost Symbol” doesn’t end with the sexual tease of “Angels & Demons” or “Da Vinci,” but rather with a sunrise over the D.C. skyline, leaving the characters and the reader with a profound sense of hope.

The book is remarkably similar to a popcorn movie. You may not gain a particularly powerful new understanding of the world around you, but you’ll sure have a good time reading it.

VERDICT: Perhaps the most engaging reads are books that are hard to put down, and “The Lost Symbol” is one such book. While “The Lost Symbol” is not a great literary triumph, neither are most novels, and Dan Brown’s work represents the best of that genre.