|
 The Da Vinci Code, from start to finish, takes place in Paris and London over a 72-hour day. With its engaging plot and action characters, it takes about that much time to read.
Sophie Neveu, a demure yet resilient and persistent cryptologist, shares a protagonist stage with intrepid Robert Langdon, a symbologist whose lectures are 'like chocolate to the ears' of his female students. Langdon and Sophie, privy to different facets of the well-guarded secrets of the Priory of Sion, are hounded at every turn by both sides of the law. Sophie and Langdon also share a keen interest and ability as word sleuths.
A legacy of puzzles, word games and anagrams challenge the reader as well as the pair as they set about to solve a murder. The dead man, and grandfather to Sophie, prepares his last anagram, a series of clues to the plot of impending doom, and lays them bare under an ultraviolet beam and the sublime vigil of DaVinci’s paintings in the Louvre.
At every turn, there is an unsavory character or two to halt the progress of the word mavens. Silas, an albino and a religious zealot, is at the mercy of the almost-cultist Opus Dei and a self-imposed flagellation, acerbic enough to draw blood. What Silas lacks in savvy he makes up for in strength. His eyes, as red and piercing as laser beams, penetrate the very soul of his victims. There is Teabing, an onerous personality who poses as Langdon’s friend. In addition, there are the ever present, ever bungling French detectives.
However, the best part of the Da Vinci Code is its ending and possible truths author proposes about the life of Christ. The theories will haunt you for days or until you begin your own investigation of the DaVinci Code.
|
