Too many popular authors (Thomas Harris) have followed huge hits (The Silence of the Lambs) with terrible embarrassments (Hannibal). Mr. Brown hasn't done that. Instead, he's bringing sexy back to a genre that had been left for dead.

*****

Mr. Brown was writing sensational visual scenarios long before his books became movie material. This time he again enlivens his story with amazing imagery. Some particularly hot spots: the unusually suspense-generating setup for Katherine’s laboratory; the innards of the Library of Congress; the huge tank of the architeuthis; and two highly familiar tourist stops, both rendered newly breathtaking by Mr. Brown’s clever shifting of perspective. Thanks to him, picture postcards of the capital’s most famous monuments will never be the same.