David A. Shugarts

Note: Dan Brown has never produced a title called Solomon Key.

Secrets of the Widow’s Son is an unprecedented publishing event: a book about a book that has yet to be published. As the world waits breathlessly for Dan Brown to publish his sequel to The Da Vinci Code, this new book, Secrets of the Widow’s Son, prepares international audiences for what they will experience in Brown’s forthcoming book. Instead of asking what is fact and what is fiction after reading Brown’s next book (as so many readers did with The Da Vinci Code), those who read Secrets of the Widow’s Son will have the unique opportunity to explore these questions in advance.
Secrets of the Widow’s Son will lead the reader along an incredibly fascinating, thought-provoking, and ultimately shocking trail of clues, codes, and long-forgotten history, from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the other Freemasons who were America’s Founding Fathers to an American capital city that rivals The Da Vinci Code’s Paris. The world awaits Dan Brown’s The Solomon Key. But it need not await the mysteries, adventures, themes, and characters likely to appear in that book.… (altro)

I bought this at Barnes and Noble for slightly less than $3, mostly because it looked to be vaguely interesting after a scrutiny of the cover and and quick flip-through. Interesting it is, but not terribly deep; it does what it promises to do (reveal some vaguely obscure topics that may appear in Dan Brown's next book, The Solomon Key) but only offers cursory glimpses into each topic. The majority of the material concerns itself with a history of the freemasons and their influence in early American history, and how that played a role in the construction of Washington, DC.
Overall, it's a good overview. Certainly it's worth reading, and at the price I paid for it worth buying for reference. I think the best use for the book would probably be as a launch point for further research of your own. If you know nothing about the freemasons, qabbalah, symbolism, etc., then I would recommend the book as a good introduction. But if you're more knowledgeable about esoteric subjects, then you'll hardly be surprised by any of the material. The useful part of the book for you, then, is the appendices, with references for qabbalah, grimoires, etc.… (altro)