Born on June 22, 1964, Dan Brown was raised in Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.A. His father was a Mathematics teacher who also wrote several texts books. As a child Dan Brown spent many hours solving mysteries, puzzles, anagrams and crosswords and too part in elaborate treasure hunts that his father devised for him and his siblings. Brown’s parents were singer/musicians who were very active in the local Episcopalian church, also acting as its choirmasters. Christianity and cryptography remain recurring themes in Dan Brown’s novels.

Before launching on a career as a writer Dan Brown dabbled in a musical career and even moved to Hollywood to try his luck as a singer, songwriter and pianist. In 1994, Brown released a CD titled Angels & Demons. After an average success as a musician, he moved back to New Hampshire and worked as a school teacher.

While on a holiday Dan Brown happened to read Sydney Sheldon’s The Doomsday Conspiracy  and became inspired to write a similar thriller and started work on The Digital Fortress.  He enjoyed writing so much that he quit his teaching job and became a full time writer and went on to write Angels and Demons and The Deception Point. The latter of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon. While the success of these two books was moderate, it was Dan Brown’s third novel The Da Vinci Code that rose to the New York Times Bestsellers list within the week of its release. With this book there was no looking back for Dan Brown. The sale for his previous two books also spiked after the success of The Da Vinci Code. Both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons were also made into films that did fairly at the box office.

Dan Brown’s latest book The Lost Symbol was released in September 2009.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3541342.stm

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/05/08/thriller_instinct/