3. Dan Brown
Dan Brown has written four books in the Robert Langdon series and they are all horrible. Just straight up piles of hot garbage. The Da Vinci Code is the most popular with Angels and Demons also being well known. All together, Brown has sold over 200 million copies of his terrible books. Robert Langdon is a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology. For some reason he is called to help with things like murders and terrorist threats. Using his skills as a professor to dissect history and art, he helps solve the crimes at the centre of the novel. They sell well because they are fast paced and have some interesting speculations about Christianity and European art. This is where one of the problems arise. Brown has been heavily criticized for his lack of accuracy when it comes to his speculations. If Brown wanted to change the facts to make a better story, that is understandable; the problem is that Brown claimed that what he was printing was factual. The second part is that, Brown borrowed his ideas from other writers and has been sued three different times for copyright infringement. Most noticeably was the idea that Mary Magdalene married Jesus and their blood line continued in France was the basis of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail. While cleared of the charges it does look very much like Brown took the idea and sewed a plot line through it. Besides taking ideas from other writers and lacking accuracy, Brown is awful at plotting. He is one of his own worst enemies. Let's take a look at Angels and Demons. It starts off with an interesting premise. The Pope has died and the Illuminati, a centuries old, anti-religious secret society is killing off his possible replacements using the the primordial elements: 'Earth', 'Air', 'Fire', and 'Water'. Add into that the Illuminati has stolen some Anti-Matter that could cause an explosion similar to a nuclear bomb and plan on blowing up the Vatican. Sounds decent, huh? Well, SPOILER ALERT (and it is encouraged you read the spoiler; it will save you much disappointment if you ever have to read the book). It becomes kind of obvious about half way through, there is no Illuminati conspiracy, just some whacked out aid to the Pope who wants people to believe again. Brown doesn't understand that your twist ending has to make the story more interesting, not ruin the premise. Brown is a terrible writer because he ruins his own interesting premises. The other thing is that it doesn't seem likely that one person would be able to do all the things the Aid did. It would have made more sense if a century-year old secret society of scientists were involved in the crime. He simply added a twist for the sake of having a twist. It doesn't work for M. Night Shyamalan, and it doesn't work for Dan Brown.