Angels and Demons

I've just finished reading Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons". The book is nicely written except for one major let-down. It's far too similar to "The Da Vinci Code" by the same author. AnD was, in fact, written first and so the above sentence should actually be twisted the other was around. I can understand the fact that tDVC was a sequel to AnD and so some similarities would be inevitable; but I think Dan Brown's overdone it.

To elaborate -

* both books have the same protagonist, Robert Langdon (of course, considering one's the sequel to the other)

* both books kick-off with Langdon being awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call

* both times the phone call is to announce the murder of a European man

* both times the man in question is nude, and there are some sort of symbological connotations related to the death

* both books have another protagonist, who is a young European woman (strikingly beautiful, of course) who is directly related to the murdered individual

* both plots involve the Vatican and an ancient Secret Society that has beliefs that contradict the Church

* both plots involve an elusive, solitary killer hired by the bad guys

* both books involve Langdon solving some ancient symbological riddle with the help of the lovely lady

... and many more other such similarities. C'mon Mr. Brown, how about some creativity and imagination. Not sure if I want to read his other two books now...