Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol will become the biggest selling adult fiction novel of the decade, and the fastest selling since the final Harry Potter book, Waterstone's have predicted.

By Chris IrvinePublished in The Telegraph, 14 September

The book, released this Tuesday, follows Brown's hugely successful The Da Vinci Code, and has a first print run of one million copies.
More than one in 10 British household bought a copy of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, within the first 24 hours of its release, making it the fastest-selling book in the country's history. A total of 2,652,656 copies were sold in the opening 24 hours.

The Lost Symbol is a thriller set during a 12-hour period and features the hero from The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Robert Langdon.
An electronic version of the novel will also be released on Tuesday and could prove a turning point for machines such as the Sony Reader and the Kindle ebook.

The book is set largely in Washington and is set to examine freemasonry in the same way Brown featured the Illuminati and the Catholic Church in his other novels.
The Da Vinci Code, which was subsequently turned into a film starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, has sold more than 81 million copies worldwide and is Britain's biggest selling paperback novel of all time. The film grossed $758 million.
Following the success of The Da Vinci Code, Brown's earlier novels Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress all went on to become multi-million copy international best sellers, and are Britain's second, third and fourth best selling adult paper back novels of all time.
Despite the Da Vinci Code's success, it angered scholars, critics and religious officials, with the plot including secret religious cults and speculation Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene.
Janine Cook, from Waterstone's, whose London Piccadilly store is the only British shop selling signed copies, said: "It's almost inevitable that this will be the fastest selling fiction hardback of the decade since records began. Outside of Harry Potter, and Harry Potter is a children's book, the last time there was an adult book that there was a Great Expectation was the last Hannibal book by Thomas Harris and that was phenomenally successful and that's going to knock this one into a cocked hat.
"It's Transworld's biggest print run for a hardback novel ever in the UK, and that's on million copies which is a very bullish thing to do in the economic climate but I think they can be very confident they will be going to a second print run and more after that.
"For us it's going to be the biggest the seller of the year and since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
The majority of Borders book stores will open at least an hour early on publication day.
Ruth Atkins, Borders fiction buyer, said: "We're expecting it will be the biggest fiction hardback of the year and will bring a lot of people into the shops who don't usually come in."

Read the full piece at The Telegraph online.