Simply Unputdownable! – Dan Brown the Master of the Intelligent Thriller

What does Da Vinci’s last supper of Christ have in common with the sacred feminine? What does the Holy Grail have to do with a prostitute Jesus blessed? Was Mona Lisa really a man? Why are a secret society and a Catholic sect locked horns against one another? And what does all this have to do with the bloodline of a certain Mr. Jesus Christ? These are just some of the puzzles Dan Brown knots in the Da Vinci Code and he unweaves them in a most ingenious manner. The phrase simply unputdownable has become the king among cliché’s often used to refer to rather moribund works of fiction even. Occasionally when one encounters an author with supreme talent like Brown one feels that phrase was coined to describe the likes of him. This book simply thins the line between fact and fiction and as one reaches the end of the book the line seems to have blurred. History (of events before the 20th Century) is in reality a mix of myth, legend, circumstantial evidences, biased opinions and some facts. The point the Da Vinci Code makes is simple-this book is as much true or myth as the Bible. Angels and Demons the prequel to the Da Vinci Code matches its sequel in intrigue and drama,using the eternal battle between science and religion as its backbone. With the Vatican a virtual ticking time bomb ancient symbols hidden in cathedrals and catacombs have to be decoded or…And the grand finale catches you totally off guard and leaves you breathless. Bottom line? I would place Angels and Demons one step above The Da Vinci Code. If you read these two books of Dan Brown first (as I did and I suggest you do) the other two books of Brown(Deception Point and Digital Fortress)are a bit of a letdown. They are in fact very good books. But so high is the reader’s expectation at this point that they don’t match it. Deception Point has a NASA satellite discovering a rare object in the Artic Ice or is it unthinkable scientific trickery? Digital Fortress is a techno-thriller that has the U.S. National Security Agency’s classified code-breaking machine encountering an unbreakable code? Or could it be something far simpler than an unbreakable code? There is a common strain running through both Deception Point and The Digital Fortress. If you have read one you have read the other. What I mean by this is that while the stories are as similar as chalk and cheese, the reactions of the leading characters to various situations, the betrayers and the final unfolding of truth happen in much the same manner. However I would say that Deception Point is in the same league as a book like Alistair McLean’s Ice Station Zebra, while Digital Fortress is a huge let down not in the same league as Brown’s other three books. Dan Brown is one the smartest writers of our times. The masterly way he weaves fact, conjecture, speculation and myth into fiction makes him a most engaging writer. If you enjoy good fiction his writing epitomizes it.With most works of best-selling fiction such as the like of Sidney Sheldon and Dennis Lehane indulging our senses with cheap thrills here is a writer who engages our gray cells. Top-notch stuff.