Alex's Book Club: The DaVinci Code

Pages 148-186:

I spoke too soon, and would like to apologize to Dan Brown. Not because his writing style doesn't suck... It does. However, my snarky comments about Sophie heading to a train station, and the French police being stupid were premature.

Turns out, Sophie has a plan. She has Langdon buy tickets out of town, and then instead, they sneak into a cab to head even FURTHER into town, to make the police think they're on the train. Good plan.

Also turns out, the police aren't fooled. They cover the train just in case, but Fache figures out they're still in Paris, and alerts Interpol to block off all banks, restaurants, and hotels. Also a good plan.

Langdon, meanwhile, discovers that Sauniere wrote an address on the back of the key he left for Sophie. The key is for a safety deposit box at a Swiss Bank, which, unfortunately, alerts the police to their presence. However, they buy some time because the manager of the bank was friends with Sophie's grand-pere, and discover yet another hidden message in Sauniere's dying words... The account number to his secret safety deposit box.

Back with the Bishop, turns out he's dealing with a shadowy arm of the Vatican, working on a timetable to ends in one month. Ends in what, no one knows.

Oh, also, the most fabulous treasure at the end of this search is probably the Holy Grail. Although the Holy Grail probably isn't a Grail at all, its... We don't find out yet.

End Page 186!

I actually don't have much snarky to say about these pages. Yeah, the prose still sucks. Yes, it's annoying that every time there's a detail revealed, he stops just short of revealing the whole truth for no other reason than to keep the reader in suspense, even if it doesn't make sense in the scene. Yes, it's REALLY annoying that he'll reveal something to one character, and repeat the same detail to another character, almost word for word two pages later.

But for the first time in the book, the characters are actually acting in some sort of intelligent manner. And, although the whole evil church angle is lame and could probably be jettisoned, the stuff with Sophie and Langdon is mildly interesting. I'm surprised an author who seems to be as borderline retarded as Dan Brown could come up with three meanings for the same message. So far, Sauniere's dying code:

13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian devil! Oh, lame saint!
P.S. Find Robert Langdon

So, far, we've had:

- A Fibonnacci Sequence in the first line.
- Also, it was used as a code so it would be sent to Sophie's cryptology department.
- Also, it's the code to his bank account.
- Second line is a condemnation of the church, letting Langdon know that it was, in fact, sent by Sauniere.
- Also, it means Leonardo DaVinci! The Mona Lisa!
- Last line, telling Sophie to find Robert Langdon (obviously).
- But also PS stands for Princess Sophie, Sophie's nickname from her grandfather.
- But also, PS stands for Priory of Scion, the secret group who Langdon knows protected the Holy Grail.

Anyway, that's kind of cool.

Question for Discussion: If you could hide anything in a Swiss safety deposit box, what would you leave for your granddaughter to find after your untimely murder?