Do you enjoy reading a book filled with interesting twists and turns, if so then The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is the book for you.
The story starts out when a curator at the Louvre is murdered and the police have to track down a Harvard Professor called Robert Langdon on the dead man’s behalf. Robert Langdon is woken up in the middle of the night while sleeping in his hotel room in Paris. He ignores the calls the first few times, however the man on the other end insists it’s important. The police soon pickup Langdon, and escort him to the Louvre. There he meets lead investigator Bezu Fache, who is a fierce investigator that has his job all planned out. He shows Langdon the body of Jacques Sauniere. Langdon is questioned by Fache, and is shown around the crime scene. Langton is soon introduced to Sophie Neveu, she is a cryptographer and is there to help decipher a message that Sauniere wrote before his death. One thing leads to another and Sophie discreetly informs Langdon that he is Fache’s suspect number one, and informs Langton to meet her in the bath room. When they meet in the bathroom Sophie tells him about the situation and why Fache has chosen him as the prime suspect in the murder of what happens to be Sophie’s grandfather. She then informs Langton that he is being tracked, after a few minutes Sophie takes the tracker, sticks it in a bar of soap, and throws it out the window onto a truck. Fache and his team have been tracking the device, and have now noticed that Langton had “escaped”, so they chased after him.
This gave Sophie and Langton some time to sneak around the museum, in search of clues that her grandfather, Jacques Sauniere had left her. She tells him about her grandfather’s message, some numbers along with a message saying “P.S Find Robert Langton.” After a while they escape the museum and one thing leads to another as they end up in a Swiss bank. It turned out that the number that Sophie had found, along with some other clues found in the museum led them to the bank, and had given them a safety deposit box code. They enter the bank and attempt to retrieve the box, but they are missing the password, so they call the manager. He tries to help them out however he can’t, and to make matters worse they are wanted all over France, and a security guard called the police. When Sophie informed the manager that she was Sauniere’s granddaughter he immediately did his best to help out. Sophie soon found the passcode to the deposit box, inside which she found a wooden box. The cops however are on their tail, so in order to escape they need the help of the manager, who agreed to help, since he was very good friends with Sauniere. He sneaks them out in an armored truck right as the police arrive. Langton soon learns that Sauniere belonged to an ancient brotherhood known as “the Priority of Sion.” They were in charge of protecting the Holy Grail. To make things even more interesting, the box that they found inside the deposit contained a cryptex. A cryptex as described in the book is a cylinder that is unlocked by being turned in the right direction multiple times, in different combinations. Inside the cylinder there is a piece of papyrus paper, and a vial of vinegar. If the cryptex was forced open the vial would break and destroy the papyrus which had a clue to where the grail was hidden.
Next the story gets a bit bumpy as the bank manager is not sure if he can trust them so he pulls the armored truck over, and with the help of a gun hopes to regain the box. However he is outsmarted by Langton and Sophie, who take the box, and the truck and drive over to Langton’s friend Leigh Teabing. Teabing is a Holy Grail expert, and Langton’s old friend. Now Langton knew that Sauniere was a Priority member, and that he had passed along a box with a crptex that contained the information needed to find the Grail.
Soon upon arrival at Teabing’s Royale estate, they park the stolen bank truck and enter the sealed compound. After hearing about the grail Teabing jumped out of bed and greeted them. He along with his manservant Remy invited them in. When they arrive they first talk strictly about the Grail, and Langton does not mention anything about being wanted by the feds. Langton and Teabing explain to Sophie that the grail is not the cup of Christ, but the bones of his partner Mary Magdalene. She was Jesus’s partner but the Church tried to kill her, and suppress her, so that the word of her never came out. Her story, or the Grail could ruin the Church. That is why the Churches goal has been to destroy the Grail which is rumored to be Mary’s bones, and a lot of documentation against the Church. The Priority’s goal was quite the opposite, it was to protect the Grail and one day reveal it’s contents to the world. After a long talk with Teabing Sophie soon learns that her grandfather could have possible been the Grand Master of the Priority. Although Teabing doubts if he was the Grand Master Sophie is sure of it, due to a ritual that she had witnessed as a child. That ritual had torn her and her grandfather apart. Sophie never spoke to her grandfather after it, that is until he was murdered. Langton and Sophie decide to show Teabing the box with the cryptex in it, however their meeting is soon interrupted by Saunieres murderer, known as Silas.
Silas belongs to Opus Dei, a section of the Christian Church, and he is real suspected murderer of Jacques Sauniere. He is instructed by his caretaker Bishop Aringarosa, who had taken him in when Silas was a young man who had escaped from prison. Both Silas, and his instructor Bishop Aringarosa were instructed by the anonymous teacher. The teacher was the one who lead the operation to find the Grail, and destroy it before it was revealed.
Silas had interrupted Sophie’s and Langton’s meeting with Teabing. He was spying on them outside a window, and as they had revealed the cryptex to Teabing he had snuck in, and hit Langton with the butt of his gun. He then tried to take the cryptex from Teabing. However Teabing decided to quickly strike back by hitting him in his leg. That caused Silas to drop down, and as Teabing’s manservant Remy entered the room Teabing had ordered to have Silas tied up. Langton was about to have much larger problems after he stood up, the police have been informed of his location and were headed his way. They had to leave and fast, since the police was already there and ready to breach the house.
Teabing, Langton, Sophie, Remy, and a tied up Silas make their escape from the estate in a clever and interesting way. As the police breach the house, Teabing and the party were already in his storage shack, where Teabing stored his luxury cars, a Rolls Royce, a classic Porsche, and a Range Rover. Teabing and the party took the Range Rover, with Teabing’s manservant Remy at the wheel. They drove through Teabing’s private forest, until they reached a highway. In the meantime the police were searching the house, and by the time they got to the storage shack, and realized that the labeled parking spot that used to house a Range Rover was empty, it was too late. Teabing was on the highway and on his way to a private airport.
When they arrived at the airport Teabing had his pilot, and his private jet standing by. They quickly boarded the plane, but the pilot objected that he only had permission for two passengers. With a little bribe and a gun Teabing had managed to get Langton, Sophie, and the tied up Silas on board; their destination…London. On the way Sophie had opened the cryptex, which revealed a piece of paper with a clue, and a second black crptex placed within the first cryptex. Soon upon landing they encounter difficulties, and that is the least of their problems, the plot gets a very interesting twist.
Got your attention? If yes, then I recommend you to read the entire book, the ending is quite revealing and offers a great twist in the plot for those of you interested in finding out where and what the Grail is, who the teacher is, and the best part, which I will not spoil for you. So if you have some time to read through the near five hundred pages, and you enjoy mystery books then this is the book for you. I would highly recommend it to everyone. I myself enjoyed it immensely, and I was never bored; Dan Brown is a great author, and having read his previous book, Angels and Demons I would have to say that his books are anything but boring. You simply can’t go wrong by choosing this book.
