Product Description

Harvard professor Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call while on business in Paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre, Jacques Saunlere, has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police have found a series of baffling codes. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, begin to sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci - and suggests the answer to a mystery that stretches deep into the vault of history. Langdon suspects the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - a centuries old secret society - and has sacrificed his life to protect the Priory's most sacred trust: the location of a vastly important religious relic hidden for centuries. But it now appears that Opus Del, a clandestinesect that has long plotted to seize the Prirory's secret, has now made its move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pleces of the puzzle, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever...Breaking the mould of traditional suspense novels, The Da Vinci Code is simultaneously lightning-paced, intelligent and intricately layered with remarkable research and detail. From the opening pages to the unpredictable and stunning conclusion, Dan Brown proves himself to be a master storyteller.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #277771 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

Review
"'Wow...Blockbuster perfection...An exhilaratingly brainy thriller. Not since the advent of Harry Potter has an author so fiagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase' New York Times; 'Brown's novel adroitly blends the chase-scene-stuffed thrillers of Robert Ludlum and the learned romps of Umberto Eco...For anyone who wants more brain-food than thrillers normally provide' Sunday Times; 'Exceedingly clever...Both fascinating and fun...a considerable achievement' Washington Post; 'A gripping bestseller...Brown has cracked the bestseller code' Guardian; 'Some genuinely fascinating insights into Grail history make this the best thriller FHM has read in yonks' FHM"

About the Author
Dan Brown is the bestselling author of Digital Fortress, Deception Point and Angels and Demons. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he has taught English and creative writing. He lives in New England and can be found on the web at www danbrown.com

Customer Reviews

The Da Vinci Code
Do you want to read a spellbinding book about ancient religious secrets, and a murder that entangles the secrets? Well then read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. With each turn of the page the book becomes more and more captivating that you won't want to put it down.

The story is full of twists and turns that will amaze you. Mixing with definite truths and facts, Brown makes his novel sound extremely convincing and inevitably deceives you from what's real and what's not. The detail and time Brown puts into the book is amazing. He is a master at weaving fact and fiction so closely that they almost blur.

The death of curator Jacques Saunière unfolds the mysterious path towards the Holy Grail and the truth about Sophie's family. Brown keeps you engaged by unveiling new, mystifying secrets about the Priory of Sion and the Holy Grail. He has a magnificent talent of interlacing famous works of art, religion, and hidden messages with ciphers as a part of the story, as well as the story as a whole.

Ciphers are key to the story. Grand Master Saunière leaves behind a puzzling message behind causing the police to suspect Robert Langdon. This one message, "13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5 / O, Draconian devil! / Oh, lame saint!" (43), acts as a catalyst to unveiling the hidden secret of the Holy Grail, and causes Langdon to the prime suspect of a murder investigation. Who would ever guess that just a few words and numbers could cause so much trouble?

Although Brown constantly shifts the setting of the scene between Silas and Langdon, the story is still very easy to follow and addicting. The ending is enchanting yet puzzling. We see a blissful scene of Sophie finally reuniting with her grandmother and brother, who she thought had died in a car accident years ago, but we never see whether the Holy Grail truly lies beneath La Pyramide Inversèe.

The Da Vinci Code is an excellent thriller that keeps the reader engaged, excited, spellbound, and breathless. I highly recommend this novel.

Gripping Tale!
The curator of the Louvre (Sauniere) was mysteriously murdered in the museum, leaving a cryptic message written beside his body in blood, and a pentacle drawn on his stomach. (Sauniere was also an expert in symbolism). When found, he was naked and posed like Da Vinci's the "Vitruvian Man."

Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of Symbology, is in town and is asked to investigate, and joined by the victim's granddaughter, a police cryptographer. (Actually, the French police suspect Langdon is the murderer, and use this as a way to help incriminate him.) Solving the murder requires answering a string of riddles hidden in works of Da Vinci.

They eventually learn that Sauniere was the head of a secret religious group (Priory of Sion) which has guarded the secret to the true nature, whereabouts, and the "keystone" that unlocks documents of the Holy Grail that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Landon and Neveu seek the find the Grail, following clues Sauniere left behind.

Also in pursuit, however, are Sauniere's killers. They have used members of the Catholic order Opus Dei as pawns to lead them to the place of the Grail's hiding. Langdon and Neveu determine that there is a battle between Opus Dei and the Priory of Scion over whether Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, the descendant of whom is among them.

Landon and Neveu meet up with Sir Leigh Teabing, wealthy aristocrat and expert on the Grail, who tells them the grail is not the cup of Christ, but the container that held his seed - Mary Magdalene, who bore a daughter by him. After his crucifixion, Mary and her child fled to France, and there the divine ancestral line of Christ was continued down the ages. The Priory of Scion kept the tomb of Mary Magdalene and the hundreds of documents that told the truth of the divine feminism. Leonardo Da Vinci had been a former head of the Priory of Sion.

Langdon and Neveu, with help from Sir Teabing (Opus Dei agent), follow an intricate maze of cryptograms to find the truth of the Grail, and the place of its final hiding. Teabing arranges additional murders to cover up his role, and the mystery-solving goes on. Eventually the French police are convinced of Langdon's innocence after being contacted by a Catholic Cardinal who was involved.