INFERNO by Dan Brown *****

This is a typical Langdon run thru the streets to beat a mysterious person trying to tamper with genetics or unleash a genetic disease upon mankind. The brilliant but obsessed with Dante's Inferno guy kills himself about when Langdon wakes up from amnesia in Italy. He has no idea how he got there or why is there. And so the chase begins. In the hospital he's told he was struck by a bullet and watches as his doctor is gunned down in front of him, he's grabbed by a student doctor Sienna and off they go together following clues from the bad guy.

Lots of descriptive passages about Italy the art and statues and each painter, sort of a history lesson from a professor, I kinda skipped over that crap it bored me, esp. since there was so much of it.

A guy on a boat finds out his client is the brilliant "killer" and goes to the world health org. with his findings to ask for help in stopping the ticking time bomb somewhere under Italys water ways so there are cops, the guys from the ship, the WHO all chasing after Langdon hoping he leads them all to an underground passage containing a dangerous substance. 

I won't give anything away but I was sort of rooting for the bad guy once I knew what they were looking for. The book addresses the increasingly dangerous overpopulation to our planet and how it can only sustain perhaps half of everyone on it. Usually nature takes things into it's own hands and a new strain of bacteria or deadly virus wipes out most of the population giving earth a chance to recover and start fresh. I liked the premise of the story and it's one that needs to have more thought by all the countries leaders. Limiting the amount of children people can conceive is a responsible thing to do.

I know someone who is fostering a baby and the mother has given up 3 other children to the adoption process and is pregnant yet again. The dumb shall inherit the earth because the more intelligent people know to limit the size of their family. Very intuitive and good reading.