This entertaining book is a good mixture of old fashioned detective story that includes a clever chap, a chase or two and a pretty woman and a book that reveals some fascinating insights into the history of the Church. Which Church: Churches in general I think but the focus of this story is, perforce, centred around the modern Catholic Church.

The story concerns the search for the Holy Grail, the Priory of Sion sect and a lot of historical and cryptographic detail. Along the way there are some codes that our hero must crack; and several of them will remind you of crossword clues. Let me reveal that I cracked two of the clues before the characters in the book did ... read on!

Let's get the style issues out of the way first. You will notice that a character's heart can pound a lot when there is an exciting issue. This is something that seems to have infected modern authors and screenwriters. Watch a thriller film or television programme and someone somewhere will sit bolt upright in bed or will come across something iffy and they will sweat, hyperventilate and doubtless have a pounding heart ... for a while. This book is the same: Langdon, our hero, has a pounding heart almost to the extent at times that he should see his cardiologist!

There are lots of italicised sayings, quotations and meanderings that are meant to help us along but I didn't find them helpful as many of them could have been left as part of the ordinary narrative and others could have been left out altogether.

Given that my copy of this book was bought and read in England I found the style to be a mixture of US and UK English. Not the transatlantic nonsense that has inflicted itself on the UK of late but a genuine confusion as if the author himself, an American, has tried to write British English but couldn't quite carry it off and his Editor tried but got to the point of saying something like "If those goddam Limeys don't like the way we write ..."

Still, I enjoyed the book and the stylistic issues didn't get in the way of a good story that rattles along nicely.

The basic storyline is that there is a murder in the Louvre in Paris and we come to learn fairly quickly that the dead man is important in terms of a sect whose preoccupation seems to be the search for the Holy Grail. The dead man is also a cryptographer of sorts ... as is Langdon, the hero. Langdon is a symbologist who happens to be in Paris when the murder occurs and, since his name has been written on the floor by the victim as he died, he gets hauled into the action by the Police.

The victims' granddaughter, the pretty woman, enters the scene and it all goes downhill from there! She is a cryptographer policewoman, trained in England, who knows that Langdon is in danger even from the police themselves so she hatches a plot to get them both out of the Louvre.

The storyline develops along fairly simple lines after that but it is none the less interesting for it. The parallel storyline involves the Priory of Sion sect and some of the characters in it: not only the victim but an Albino monk and a high flying cleric in the Opus Dei organisation. These two characters link with a third character who sits in the background until a break even moment that might take you by surprise.

The chase takes us through Paris and out into the countryside, back into Paris, via a private jet to London and then to a big church where a lot of what we are looking for is finally revealed: I can't say which big church as it would give part of the plot away.

All the while, Brown throws in a lot of interesting historical, religious and cryptographic detail that could well come as a surprise to you. The Church, in all its guises, has been responsible for the deaths of five million people over the centuries is a shocking statistic that Brown throws in. The possible chicanery within the Church that takes place on a daily basis comes through very clearly. Most surprising of all, for me at least, is the revelation that the foundations of the modern Christian Church are not what they seem. The quest for the Holy Grail is a long one but Brown reveals that the Grail is not what we have always thought it to be. You really need to read the book to find out what that is all about!

You will also be required to take another look at Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper where you view even of biblical events will be shaken.

The Da Vinci Code is so called because the murder victim is someone for whom Da Vinci was an important character. Langdon is an expert on the symbology of Da Vinci's work and several of the clues and codes within the storyline revlove around Da Vinci's works.

The story has a happy ending, back in Paris where it all started. You will find the book easy to read, the pace of the storyline is reasonably fast and whilst you might not like any of the characters you probably will feel that the story could have happened! There is even the promise of a sexual liaison between Langdon and the pretty woman, Sophie ... er, maybe.

If you're interested I cracked the following clue, just about instantly and I got to the answer about the orb before Langdon did. What do you make of this?:

click on the image for a bigger version!

Finally, try your hand at a genuine Dan Brown set of puzzles by going to his web site and attempting the puzzle that accompanies this book. It's moderately difficult and Americans can win a trip to Paris out of it: I have all of the answers and will help you, for a fee, with your entry ... closing date 12 January 2004 for the competition entry.

 

© Duncan Williamson
4 January 2004

© Webmaster Duncan Williamson 2004