The Da Vinci Code: The Maze of Cryptology

     I have recently been immersed in Dan Brown's world famous novel: The Da Vinci Code. The book is amazing. After each turn of a page, I crave for more mystery, suspense, and thrills. The book follows a suspenseful plot line and Brown manages to keep you reading for hours at a time. He also incorporates some very interesting facts about Christianity and Catholicism that you would never imagine and he also intertwines those facts with the gripping story line.
    The book starts out with the murder of a man by the name of Jacques Sauniere at the world famous Louvre Museum. Harvard professor of cryptology and symbology Robert Langdon is on a visit to Paris for conferences and is quickly notified by the French police to come to the scene of the crime. After Langdon sees the position of Sauniere's dead body, he quickly realizes that Sauniere is trying to send a message to somebody about his murder. Sauniere's body is arranged as Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man.
     A French police named Sophie Neveu is also called to the scene of the crime. Neveu secretly informs Langdon that she is Sauniere's granddaughter and that Sauniere had left a message in invisible ink  around his body before the French police erased it. Sophie has cut off all ties with her grandfather for the past ten years for a reason still unclear to me. The message had told "P.S.", which was Sophie's nickname, to find Langdon. She also tells him that the message was taken differently by the French police, who think that Landon has murdered Sauniere because the end of the message reads "P.S. Find Robert Langdon". As soon as Sophie discloses this information to Langdon, they both find themselves on a chase to solve the mystery of Sauniere's murder before getting caught. Along the way, they find that Sauniere was the Grand Master of a society called the Priory of Sion, which has a precious, guarded keystone. The keystone is rumored to have the path to the sought after Holy Grail.
    Sophie and Langdon are taken on a wild journey full of secret messages, cryptology, and secret symbols. Sauniere has left an elaborate plan before his untimely death for Sophie to find out all the secrets of the Priory of Sion after staying out of touch for so long. The reader is taken on the journey with them. I find myself gasping every time Langdon and Sophie figure out a new clue, because I realize how well thought out everything is.
     Brown's writing style includes a lot of imagery, which builds up the edge-of-your-seat suspense even more. An example of a line with a lot of imagery is:
       "He was broad and tall, with ghost-pale skin and thinning white hair. His irises were pink with dark red pupils."
This line gives a vivid image in the reader's mind and has a chilling effect.
     The reader is aware of a lot more information than Langdon and Sophie. Sauniere was murdered by a man named Silas from Opus Dei, another secret society that is after the keystone, but Sophie and Langdon don't know any of that. The chapters alternate between three perspectives. Sophie and Langdon, Silas, and Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, who is also in a high position at Opus Dei. The alternating of perspectives builds the suspense more because I, as a reader, get very anxious when all three perspectives don't know what each other is doing. That really bothers me, in a good way, and it is what keeps me reading, too. I am dying of anticipation to know what'll happen next in the book!