Rating: 
Summary: Was the editor asleep?
Review: Here's the problem: the book is actually set in two different years at the same time. At one point the book claims to be set in the early 1980s. A hundred pages (and a couple of plot days) later, it claims to be set in 2012. I can believe the former because the book has that cheesy 80s style. 2012: no way. Both at the same time? How could the editor let this kind of mistake through? This completely ruined the book for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Did it occur to anyone....
Review: that Dan Brown probably read this book and *Daughter of God,* and decided he could do that? *The Da Vinci Code* is not plagiarized, but the parallels between that book and this one are far too many to be coincidental. Now, maybe they crept in during the "revision," but did they also "revise" *Daughter of God,* which picks up the "foundations of Christianity threatened" theme with a much more interesting and original problem and precisely the same resolution.
I read *Daughter of God* and *Angels and Demons* at about the same time a few years ago, and only just figured out that they weren't the same book--that's how derivative Dan Brown's shtick is.
My point: Don't be dissin' Perdue for getting on the Da Vinci bandwagon. It looks to me like it was his bandwagon, and got hijacked. Remember, it was Brown who copied HIS title (*The Da Vinci Codex*), not the other way around.
That said, this book is as well written as Brown's (let's not confuse popularity with quality), and *Daughter of God* is a better book than either of the "Da Vinci" novels. Such are the vagaries of publishing: The best book lost out to marketing.
Rating:
Summary: A really great book
Review: I felt that the characters in this book would make for great weekly TV watching like Mulder and Scully.
Great, cool stuff!
Rating: 
Summary: Not really believable, but fun
Review: OK, first the criticism. The cover admits that the book was first published in 1983 and obviously it was "updated" before it was re-released. Those updates sometimes don't ring true. We have reference to 9/11 and then something about it happening 12 years ago. It does throw off the chronology a bit. Yes, the book is riding on the coat tails of the Da Vinci Code, but that's just good old marketing making money off of a hot topic. (Hey, it worked, I had read the Da Vinci Code and I picked it up to read on a business trip.) And the book does not have the feel to me of having been extensively researched like the Da Vinci Code. It doesn't immerse you in details, it's more of an action book.
But now on to the good things.
Lewis Perdue has woven a good who donit based on the generally accepted knowledge that Leonardo was brilliant far past his time. Someone has stolen certain pages from one of his manuscripts and doesn't particularly care who's killed to get them back. Our hero is a bit unbelievable. Let's see he works for an oil company finding new oil fields, but his employer lets him moonlight as a da Vinci expert. In his guise of da Vinci expert he suddenly finds that everyone who has looked at the manuscript is dead or being hunted down, including him. He picks up a romantic interest in the guise of an art magazine writer who just happens to be an ex CIA operative. What follows is a whirl wind race around Italy dodging evil corporate heads, discredited monks, and terrorists.
OK, when I write all that out it does sound preposterous, but remember, this is fiction.
My star ratings:
One star - couldn't finish the book
Two stars - read the book, but did a lot of skipping or scanning. Wouldn't add the book to my permanent collection or search out other books by the author
Three stars - enjoyable read. Wouldn't add the book to my permanent collection. Would judge other books by the author individually.
Four stars - Liked the book. Would keep the book or would look for others by the same author.
Five start - One of my all time favorites. Will get a copy in hardback to keep and will actively search out others by the same author.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Crafted
Review: Beautiful and fun to read
This was a fun read that I couldn't stop turning the pages. The plot is beautifully crafted and Perdue has done a huge amount of research which sustains the book. The facts sparked me to do my own research that led me into mant fascinating topics that I knew nothing about.
I found this well-written and was fascinated by the questions it raises about Da Vinci and religion. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: "Da Vinci" In the title does not a classic make....
Review: When I was in the Army, I was stationed in Germany, and got a lot of opportunities to travel around Europe on leave. I visited many of the places Perdue writes about in this book and his Daughter one and am struck by how perfectly he captures the feeling and look of these places. This was particularly enjoyable for me because I could visualize the settings of his characters, particulary the scenes in Amsterdam and Lake Como in Italy.I realize this book was one of his first works, but I enjoyed it thoroughly from first page to the last. The prose drew me in and held me there. I suppose there may have been some continuity errors in the update, but I did not notice them, nor did they hurt my enjoyment nearly as much as Dan Brown's did in both Angels & Demons and Code.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much of a read
Review: I purchased this book in an airport. Had heard something about "Da Vinci Code", maybe I was confused with the title. Got about half way through this book before I finally said enough. A poorly written book with non-sensical turns in the plot development. For instance, a female reporter shows up to help the central character in Europe. She saves his life because she is packing a pistol and happens to be a crack shot. Even in 1983 it was not likely anyone packed a pistol in Europe. She could not have brought it from the states and almost impossible to purchase one in Europe. Well, the book goes on and on like that.
Rating:
Summary: If You Love The Da Vinci Code, Skip This Book
Review: I loved the Da Vinci Code. Shortly after I finished it, I spotted this one in a bookstore. Thinking at first that it might be a rip-off trying to capitalize on the popularity of Dan Brown's book, I checked the copyright date. Interesting -- this one was first published in 1983, years before Brown's book. So I became intrigued and bought it -- whatever you do, don't do the same. This book is pure trash. It's only fair I admit that I didn't make it past page 29. Why? Well, several reasons. First of all, the names -- Vance Erikson, Suzanne Storm, come on. And what happened to Curtis Davis, the supposed protagonist referenced on the back cover? It appears that he was reincarnated in the 21st century as none other than Vance Erikson. Yes, someone went into this book and tried to update it for "today's reader," as if we couldn't relate to something written two decades ago. Did Perdue approve these changes? I can't imagine. The final product is like some bizarro world where there's no real sense of what year we're in. Let me give you an example: On page 28 it reads, "He'd [Vance] met Martini in 1966, in a small pub just off the Cambridge campus in England. The university officials had just finished telling Vance why they were not going to accept him. It was the matter, they had said, of the dishonorable discharge and of the considerable reputation he had made for himself in the world of gambling." Okay, now we get to the next paragraph where Vance is flashing back to when he and Martini were in this pub in 1966, and here's what we find: "Martini listened to him explain that the dishonorable discharge had come when the army had caught him diverting supplies to build a small hospital for wounded children near Basra in the first Persian Gulf War." What? The first Persian Gulf War was prior to 1966? Did they just skip over this war in our history books? I tried to read a few more paragraphs, but I just couldn't get over this horrible anachronistic error in the book. And it appears from other reviews that the errors only get worse. So I've put the book down. Life's too short and there are too many good books out there to waste my time with drivel like this. I'm moving on to Ian Caldwell's The Rule of Four.
Rating:
Summary: Not a DaVinci Code Clone
Review: I thought when I first saw this book it was a clone jumping on The DaVinci Code bandwagon. That was true in a fashion, as the book was first published in 1983 and has been updated and re-released, obviously to capitalize on the DaVinci fad. But it's a much better book, although some reviewers seem put off by the updates. I found it a very satisfying thriller, and one that would be the great basis for a screenplay (anyone listenin?). Enjoyable summer read, and now I plan to check out Perdue's other work.
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