The second novel in the Robert Langdon series is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. While it may be the second book in the series, it is by far the most popular one and the most well-known. Find out why this novel became an international phenomenon and an instant best seller!
The Da Vinci Code Summary
It is the sequel to Angels and Demons and the novel that most people remember. Even the movie of the same name was bigger than the prequel. The unique name grabs your attention and may have also played a role in making the book much more popular
Jacques Saunière’s death and the cryptic message the curator of Louvre and the grand master of the Priory of Sion summons Robert Langdon once again. He happened to be in town and now has another secret society and another conspiracy theory that might destroy the church (once again).
Just like in the last novel, Langdon once again ends up working with someone that is close to the case. Sophie Nevue is a police cryptographer and the granddaughter of the murdered Saunière. With Langdon’s help, she tries to find out what her grandfather’s clues mean.
We are also given narration from the killer Silas, an albino Catholic monk. He has been hired to find a keystone that will help reveal the location of the Holy Grail.
Commentary
After reading Angels and Demons, I was very excited to get to the novel that I wanted to read before I knew it was the second book in the series. Well, I finally got to read it and was devastated. The novel and the story was good. But Langdon used all the same plot twists and misdirection he used in the first novel.
The only thing that changed was the secret society and the objective. Everything else felt very familiar and gave me a lot of Deja vu. So if you plan to read the novels in order, it might ruin your experience. After reading the Da Vinci Code, I was not interested in reading any more books in the Robert Langdon series.
While the writing is decent, knowing what the twists will be ruins the fun. It makes sense why The Da Vinci Code was peak Dan Brown. I cannot name the best book in the series and I doubt most people can either. That is a big difference from when this novel seemed to be everywhere. It even made the best selling books list of all time.
Conclusion
If you like mystery novels with twists around every page, then this book is a great read. It doesn’t try new things but that doesn’t mean that it don’t work. I would recommend it just so you can see what the hype is about. And you can decide from there if it is as big a deal as it has been made out to be.
I have it but I haven’t gotten into it. Something about a book that has been adopted to a movie -already- makes me lazy to read. I’d rather watch the movie.