Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waist Your Time
Review: Pure garbage, and an insult to the minds of good people. This writers intentions are in a faryland. What starts out to be good mystery, ends out being pure garbage. I really don't know how else to discribe this rag of a book. I will use it for fire knidling when the weather gets cold.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Worth Buying
Review: I was loaned this book by a friend and I am now buying it so that I can lend it to my friends and relatives. It is definitely worth it. Not being a big fan of murder mysteries, I was apprehensive about reading this book when it was recommended to me. But since I was assured it also crossed genres into historical fiction (my true love) I decided to give it a try. I was hooked within the first 10 pages. The romanticized descriptions of the Louvre and other museums/landmarks made me want to give Paris another chance after having had a bad experience there a few summers ago. The story is fascinating, the well-researched history is intriguing, the pace is energizing, and the characters are stereotypical but adorable nonetheless. Buy it or borrow it ... it is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Christianity is a 2000 year old lie!
Review: If you like this book read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. I say DOWN with christianity! Wake up people, a new age is upon us! No more killing in the name of a false god.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Read
Review: It managed to hold my attention to the end, though I got tired of excessive detail in some scenes and other perceived literary sins that I suppose others think to be particulary admirable strengths, opinions varying as they do. As a novel this is a very good book, the author has a rabbit in the hat and produces it at the right time and in a manner calculated to thrill the reader. He certainly had me fooled. Very entertaining book, no doubt about that.However: as a source for symbolic anecdotes and occult lore, it is not a very good book, caveat emptor. Before quoting the great revelations herein as "facts" make sure that you check them through multiple sources on the web or in a reference library if you have one handy.
Rating: 
Summary: High hopes ... but disappointed
Review: I had high hopes when I started this book. Being a scientist I was intrigued by the symbology, numbers, codes, etc. But I have to say I was sadly disappointed as the book progressed. Not only are the heroines in this book exceptionally BRILLIANT (they can solve complex puzzles in a matter of seconds which many could not solve over millenniums), they are incredibly lucky ... always getting out of impossible situations perfectly. The book was shallow, predictable and too neat. Everything fell into place within a of matter pages - where is the suspense in that? Give me some depth.
One positive ... a good book for a coast to coast plane ride or a beach vacation.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put It Down
Review: There is nothing better than a good novel - especially a mystery - that teaches you things. Hardly a page was turned where I did not learn something. One of the biggest mysteries about this book is where does the non-fiction end and the fiction begin. This is a wonderful mystery centered around the old faithful hunt for the holy grail. But this takes the grail to several new levels - what it is, who is keeping(?) it and what it means in history and especially to the Christian church. The plot twists and turns just as any reader of the mystery gendre would like. But there were several things that made the twists and turn special. Good guys turned into bad guys and visa versa and seemingly tangential characters end up playing major roles. The reader can also work on solving the main question - where is the grail? - since he gets the facts the same time as the main characters (what he does not get is all the background maneuverings). Also some of the clues I was actually able to get before the main characters. Lastly, this is the kind of mystery that I particularly enjoy - although one of the characters is a professor so he knows an inordinate amount about the subject matter - the main characters are regular humans with no superhuman qualities. Everything they do is believable. This book held me in its grasp tighter than any I have read in a long time - it is the kind of book you wish you could just sit and read without interruption.
Rating:
Summary: The Fugitive meets Indiana Jones meets The Omen
Review: I really wanted to give this book a five star rating, but was slightly disappointed with the ending. Not the ending I would have chosen, but then again I am not writing the book. Very good read. Chapters set-up for moving along at a fast pace. Characters were very good and interesting. I have 18 years of Catholic School education and did not find any of the subject matter disturbing. This is a work of fiction, the author has the right to make whatever conclusions he wants. The societies described in the book do exist. Every society has deviant
characters and monsters, this does not make an entire society bad. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Indiana Jones, touch of the Fugitive (innocent man seemed to be framed)and the Omen. This book did make me wonder about the societies talked about. Went on Yahoo and did some research, very interesting. Good read for the summer.
Rating:
Summary: BIG LETDOWN!
Review: I enjoyed the setup of this book but got tired of the whole cat and mouse thing and the subject matter of the book -- all about "goddess worship" which has been dealt with much better in other books such as The Red Tent and The Mists of Avalon. I did not like the way this goddess worship is portrayed as superior to Christianity. I was able to figure out several of the "clues" before the characters did and I saw the end twist coming. I barely even read the last few pages. A big disappointment because it had gotten so many great comments from so many people.
Rating:
Summary: Delivers
Review: This story delivers the promise of excitement from the first page. It's a can't put it downer in more ways than one. If you enjoy intellectual puzzles, you'll find this book right down your Rubic's cube. Few writers could write this book; it required a brilliant mind. Reading it, though, is easy. If it upsets the Christian mythologists, so be it. It's about time their brains got a jolt. However, in the final analysis, it's doubtful if they have been done any harm, despite all their screaming in the previous reviews. This is a fast paced story and you won't be able to quit reading once you start.
Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Load
Review: A convoluted and improbable plot, one-dimensional characters speaking in stilted run-on sentences, and turgid, repetitive descriptive passages characterize Dan Brown's best-seller, "The Da Vinci Code."
Compared to the work of more competent practitioners of the art of the globe-hopping action/adventure/mystery novel - Michael Crichton comes to mind - Brown's work is pedestrian and overwrought. Although prolix - the book is about 100 pages too long - the author fails to create adequate descriptions of people, or places, or objects. After 450 some pages, the reader still has gotten few clues about matters so basic as the physical appearance of the principal characters - other than hair color!
Descriptions of places - the Louvre, Westminster Abbey - are lifeless, and read as if written by one of the less gifted of Mr. Brown's former prep school students.
The success of the book must be attributed to the publisher's (Doubleday) unprecedented marketing effort - distributing 10,000 advance copies of the book to booksellers and the media, and putting Mr. Brown - who had never before sold more than a few thousand copies of his earlier efforts - on extended publicity road trips to trade shows and booksellers.
If you're looking for an intellectually challenging mystery story, reread Eco's "The Name of the Rose", or "Foucault's Pendulum". For more vivid descriptions of people and places and events in an atmosphere of mystery, read Crichton, or Ian Fleming - or even Tom Clancy!
For an example of how marketing hype can overcome critical judgment and influence popular taste, read "The Da Vinci Code".
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