Dan Brown's new book is known to be about Freemasonry and its relationship to the United States, however recent a recent interview has indicated that the plot may revolve around the traitorous nature of George Washington and a cover-up orchestrated by his Masonic brethren.  According to this idea, Washington had been secretly working with the British during the American War of Independence.

The information came from Robert Cooper, the well known Masonic author who is the curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and author of many great Masonic books.  In an interview for The Scotsman, Cooper said:

"I don't know what Brown has up his sleeve there, but I've been led to believe he's suggesting George Washington could be bought like anyone else, and the English Tories had made him an offer he couldn't refuse. When Arnold was rumbled, Washington did a huge about-turn, covered his tracks and wholeheartedly embraced the cause of American independence."

The interview has caused a bit of a stir amongst those who are awaiting the book's release on the 15th of September.  Dan Brown's publishing company has been releasing cryptic clues onto the web through their website and Twitter account that are supposed to hint at the possible plot that lies at the center of his new book.  Whatever it is, it is sure to be something sensationalist that will grab headlines and sell books on the back of controversy.

Following the interviews publication on 7th August, a few Masonic blogs have taken the story and commented on it.  The first to do this was the well known blog Freemasons For Dummies - written by Chris Hodapp - which repeated the story almost verbatim, adding only that he felt that the online clues do not point in the direction indicated by the interview.  Robert Cooper actually commented on this blog post with the following:

"The article in the Scotsman today was a bit of a surpise as I was due to speak with the journalist again and the piece was to be published on Monday. I guess they thought that they had enough from our 10 minute phone conversation! A wee bitty journalistic license here methinks!

Please remember that I was asked for my opinion and based on background reading etc. this is what I came up with.

The main point as far as I am concerned is that a Freemasons was asked to comment before the novel was published. That is encouraging.

Dan Brown's publicity machine is now getting into top gear so this piece in the Scotsman can be seen as part of the process. I have been promised (for what that is worth!) a follow up article after the novel is published to comment on the book whether I guessed rightly or wrongly."

So it does seem that Robert Cooper is backing off somewhat from the rather strong claims made in The Scotsman article.  Following this, another blog post was published over at the Key to The Lost Symbol Clues blog, which looks to examine the clues released and figure out possible plot elements from them.  This post indicates that the idea is quite consistent with the clues released so far, pointing to the image of George Washington during his time as a British 'Redcoat' during the French and Indian wars. 

There are other clues that point to towards espionage and indicate the involvement of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).  Despite all of this however, the post ends with the assertion that it would be almost impossible for such a side of Washington to have remained unknown - and none of the many biographies indicate anything even remotely related to such a theory.  However, there is some indication that he was quite an adept 'spymaster', so the espionage elements will quite likely play a part in any plot devices.  Robert Cooper also left a comment on this blog post, further explaining his position:

"Hi everyone, Regarding the comments above. I have to confess that I am not really up on Twitter and such stuff - I now wish that I had been! In short the piece in the Scotsman was all mine save a casual exchange with a fellow Freemason at the begining of the year.

I come to the conclusion I simply asked the question what would be the most outrageous thing Brown could claim about Washington? A criminal? Not powerful enough. A womaniser? Nothing really sensational about that. An alien? Too extreme. A traitor? Ah...

If you told the average US citizen that Washington was a traitor, that the founding father of the USA was a liar, cheat and a traitor I think that you can imagine the reaction. It is that kind of reaction that Brown wants. Outrage = sales. But then, you have to remember that I am an arch cynic and so could be misleading myself! In any event I will read The Lost Symbol as soon as it comes out - I have reserved a copy with my local public library!"

In the end, this is what the Dan Brown publishing side-show does best - create an inordinate amount of controversy by making people think that the fiction they are reading might actually be based on some historical fact.  By interweaving loosely (and often quite poorly) researched alternative history into his novels, Dan Brown has succeeded in convincing many who read his books that they are learning some deeply hidden historical secret.  It is this element of controversy that caused The Da Vinci Code to become the best-selling phenomenon that it did.  Without such an element, they are just formulaic pulp adventure novels and the publishers know it.  Expect The Lost Symbol, whatever the plot may end up being, to coincide with a well-orchestrated media campaign that tries to drum up as much controversy and outrage as possible - hopefully this time it won't be as successful, although something tells me that if Dan Brown has decided to go with attacking the United States on a patriotic level, that he knows exactly what he is doing...