A Review of The Da Vinci Code
By Daniel Johann
Are you a fan of novels with a bit of action? If so, Dan Brown’s series of books featuring the character Robert Langdon, a symbologist and professor at Harvard, might be a good choice for your next set of books to read. One of these books, and my personal favorite of the series, is The Da Vinci Code. What is this story about? Who are the characters? What mysteries lie underneath the cover? Well, I am here to explain a bit of the plot while not spoiling too much of the book, as I think you should experience it yourself (if you’re interested, of course).
The Da Vinci Code features Robert Langdon, who is on a trip to Paris, getting summoned to investigate a crime. The curator at the Louvre Museum, Jacques Saunière, has been shot by a mysterious assassin named Silas. Langdon is told by the Police captain, Bezu Fache, that he is there to decipher a code left by Saunière before he died. Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist called onto this case, secretly reveals to Langdon that Fache suspects him of the murder due to some writing that Fache erased when Langdon arrived. Sophie reveals that she is the granddaughter of the curator and that the writing that Fache erased was secretly a message to her. After investigating around the museum, they escape and go to the bank, where a safe deposit box could be found containing a cryptex. This device allows the holder to turn dials to open it, but trying to force it open would destroy whatever message was inside it. I won’t go any farther into the plot, as I feel like you should experience the rest of it yourself.
This book is a great read for people who like mystery novels. It has many surprises that you may not expect, many close calls with the French police, and some funny moments. By itself, the book is great, and I couldn’t recommend it enough. However, if you’re thinking about reading the other books featuring Robert Langdon, they could be hit or miss sometimes. Most of the time, these other books follow the same general format as this: Someone dies at or near the beginning, Langdon gets dragged along through some means while getting hunted by the government, and Langdon has to figure out the mystery before the police get him. Each book acts almost like the book before it never happened, with only slight mentions of some of the events in the previous books and no mentions of the characters from previous books.
In conclusion, I’d recommend you read The Da Vinci Code, as it’s the best in the series. In terms of the other books, I’d say the one that came before The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, is another good read. However, unless you very much enjoyed the first two, I wouldn’t exactly recommend going past the third book, as the formula generally stays the same throughout the series.
