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Good writing versus bad history and controversial thesis. THE DA VINCI CODE is the 2nd book in a series of books surrounding the character of Robert Langdon. Langdon made his first appearance in ANGELS AND DEMONS and not only single-handedly saved the world, but helped "reform" the Catholic church as well. Superman might be able to fly and see through walls, the X-Men can do all sorts of superhuman feats because of their mutant genes, and Batman protects Gotham City because of the very technological (and expensive) gadgets at his disposal, but all these superheroes would be hard pressed to match the mastermind and wit of Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon. In ANGELS AND DEMONS he saved the world in less than 24 hours. In THE DA VINCI CODE Langdon's on a quest even more important than saving the world. THE DA VINCI CODE begins about a year after the events of ANGELS AND DEMONS have taken place (don't be alarmed if you haven't read ANGELS AND DEMONS, references to the events of that book are few and far between). Robert Langdon is in his hotel room in Paris when he is disturbed by the arrival of Captain Bezu Fache. Langdon is informed that there has been a murder at the Louvre and that his expertise is needed in helping solve the crime. As it turns out, Fache strongly suspects Langdon of the crime and is hoping that Langdon's assistance will be his own undoing--ala the Columbo technique. Unfortunately for Fache, the murdered museum's curator has left a message behind for his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, a code breaker on the Paris police force. The message leads Sophie to assist Langdon in his escape and thus begins another 24-hour adventure that takes Langdon across France and to England in search of one of the greatest historical and archeological discoveries of all time: the "Holy Grail." Despite a series of murders and a mysterious albino priest, THE DA VINCI CODE actually moves fairly slowly in the beginning. The first half of the book tends to jump around a lot and includes a lot of exposition. It isn't until Langdon and Sophie leave the Lourve and head towards the Swiss bank that things begin to pick up. The book then moves at a modest pace until the duo meet up with Sir Leigh Teabing. Once he reveals the "big secret" the book becomes a page turner until the end. As far as writing styles go, THE DA VINCI CODE isn't all that great. It's a decent mystery/suspense novel and some of the imagery in the book is fairly descriptive, especially the more "action" oriented passages. However, THE DA VINCI CODE isn't written as well as ANGELS AND DEMONS. That book, though a piece of pop literia as well, was fairly tight with enough diversions to forgive the plot holes and discrepancies. THE DA VINCI CODE isn't like that. It's patterned after ANGELS AND DEMONS and like most sequels, it's just not as good. Now, as for the theme of the novel, I'm not sure why this book has taken off the way it has because overall it's just an average mystery/suspense novel. The book does present a very controversial idea-that Jesus wasn't the Son of God, that he married Mary Magdalene, they had children, and their descendants are still alive today. Combined with ideas presented in ANGELS AND DEMONS, it does seem that Brown as an agenda to debunk the Christin faith. He does an interesting job of mixing a tad historical facts; lots of fiction, conspiracy theories, and suppositions; and a whole lot of cultural references to make the idea seem not only plausible, but also believable. To make the theme seem even more believable he takes an idea from satiric and comic writers and introduces a statement at the beginning of the book that says something to the effect that "all the organizations, histories, descriptions, etc. within this book are true and based on fact". The majority of the book has about as much fact in it as William Golding put in THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Overall, an average mystery/action/suspense novel with a very controversial proposal that makes for interesting fiction, but has no basis in fact.