The Da Vinci Code; Review

I finally read this book, written by Dan Brown, after several years since having seen the movie version. It is a sequel to Dan Brown's previous and less known book, Angels and Demons. The Da Vinci Code is truly an epic blockbuster, and myself being a romance fan, I do wish there was a bit more romance, but other than that, it is a spinning story which catches you off guard.
Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor and symbologist, receives a phone call in the middle of night in his hotel room in Paris. He is called to the Louvre on the basis that the police need his help to solve a message the murdered curator of Louvre left as his dying message. Once arrived, he meets up with Captain Fache, but a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, shows up unexpectedly and tells Langdon to call the American Embassy. She gives him the number, which he calls, but instead of the embassy, he hears a message recorded by Sophie explaining that the police had set this up to force him to unwillingly give a confession. Following her plan, they ditch the police and team up to solve the riddle Sophie's grandfather, the dead curator, left behind. They realise that the riddle did much more than telling who the murderer was, but it was the beginning of a long treasure hunt to one of the world's most mysterious treasures: The Holy Grail.

This novel, published in 2003, was a major success and became a bestseller in 2004, only being surpassed by J. K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. Although the general public has rated this one of the best books ever written, many critics gave negative feedback, especially for the historical accuracy of this fiction novel. The book, despite it's success, created criticism concerning it's description of Christianity, the history of the church, description of European art, history and architecture. Despite the controversy on whether the content is factual or not, I still believe that this book is a very good read and I definitely enjoyed reading it. One thing I didn't appreciate, was the abstract ending. I had been expecting the same ending as in the movie, but I must say, ending-wise, the movie holds the upper hand.

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