Everyone and their sisters and brothers are waiting for the release of Dan Brown’s next book – December 2006, if we can believe the rumors – but we do know that it’s going to be called The Solomon Key, referring to Kryptos Sculpture at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and that it deals with the Freemasons – or, more formally, the Free and Accepted Masons: a secret society with about five million members, mainly in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.  American freemasonry is older than this country, and many of the Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and George Washington were masons – and eager readers are already picturing Robert Langdon racing against the clock again, this time in the streets of our nation’s capital rather than Paris.  Quick – anyone know anything about the Masons?  Are they really as evil as some people say?

In The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Freemasonry, an expert author reveals the truths and dispels the myths that have surrounded the Freemasons for hundreds of years:

v      Were the first masons 14^th-century stone masons and cathedral builders, or can Freemasonry really be traced back as far as Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine?

v      The Masonic insistence on the belief in a Supreme Being

v      The Masons and the Knights Templar

v      True or false: the Masons coordinated the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

v      How are Masons initiated, and exactly what goes on in a Masonic lodge?

v      What’s the difference between the York Rite and the Scottish Rite, and are there women and African American Freemasons?

v      The Masons in the streets of Washington, DC: a tour