Premature Literary Peaking

The The Da Vinci Code is a fantastic book, but probably more due to the concepts than the actual writing style. I find "bestseller authors" fascinating, though in the case of Brown my fascination maybe that of a voyeur overlooking a car crash. His Digital Fortress that I mentioned some time ago was hardly a "tour de force", but I was willing to ring it without any great expectations. Deception Point is tedious. I'm intent on finishing it, but I have to make a conscious effort to do so. Like so many writers in the action/adventure/thriller genres Brown jumps around from one sub-plot to another and from one character's viewpoint to another. Whereas Cussler does this smoothly and with great ease, Brown comes across as a crass amateur by comparison. It's almost as if he is following a formula or some kind and mixing the wrong ingredients in the process. I am bored. The review on Amazon is hilarious:

In the world of page-turning thrillers, Dan Brown holds a special place in the hearts of many of us. After his first book, Digital FortressAngels and Demons, which was probably one of the half-dozen most exciting thrillers of last year. It is a pleasure to report that his new book lives up to his reputation as a writer whose research and talent make his stories exciting, believable, and just plain unputdownable.

Have they been reading the same books as me? Either they have a very different taste to me or they have been reading very different editions. "unputdownable"? I don't think so.