While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night

phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the
body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to
discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of da Vinciclues visible for all to see
and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator
was involved in the Priory of Sionan actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac
Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and da Vinci, among others. The Louvre curator has sacrificed
his life to protect the Priorys most sacred trust: the location of a vastly important religious relic,
hidden for centuries.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a
faceless powerbroker who appears to work for Opus Deia clandestine, Vatican-sanctioned
Catholic sect believed to have long plotted to seize the Priorys secret. Unless Langdon and
Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priorys secretand a stunning historical
truthwill be lost forever.

In an exhilarating blend of relentless adventure, scholarly intrigue, and cutting wit, symbologist
Robert Langdon (first introduced in Dan Browns bestselling Angels & Demons) is the most
original character to appear in years. The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of
lightning-paced, intelligent thrillersurprising at every twist, absorbing at every turn, and in the
end, utterly unpredictableright up to its astonishing conclusion.

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Reviews
WOWBlockbuster perfection. An exhilaratingly brainy thriller. Not since the advent of Harry
Potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing
them through hoops.
Janet Maslin, The New York Times

A new master of smart thrills. A pulse-quickening, brain-teasing adventure.

People Magazine

This is pure genius. Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished
writers in the country.
Nelson Demille

Thriller writing doesnt get any better than this.

The Denver Post

This masterpiece should be mandatory reading. Brown solidifies his reputation as one of the
most skilled thriller writers on the planet with his best book yet, a compelling blend of history
and page-turning suspense. Highly recommended.
Library Journal

A heart-racing thriller. This story has so many twists all satisfying, most unexpected that it
would be a sin to reveal too much of the plot in advance. Lets just say that if this novel doesnt
get your pulse racing, you need to check your meds.
The San Francisco Chronicle
BIZARRE FACTS
The Secret Life of Leonardo da Vinci
A prankster and genius, Leonardo da Vinci is widely believed to have hidden secret messages
within much of his artwork. Most scholars agree that even da Vincis most famous pieces
works like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Madonna of the Rocks contain startling
anomalies that all seem to be whispering the same cryptic messagea message that hints at a
shocking historical secret that allegedly has been guarded since 1099 by a European secret
society known as the Priory of Sion. In 1975, Pariss Bibliothque Nationale discovered
parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion,
including Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. French president
Franois Mitterrand, is rumored to have been a member, although there exists no proof of this.

An Unbroken Code
There exists a chapel in Great Britain that contains a ceiling from which hundreds of stone
blocks protrude, jutting down to form a bizarre multi-faceted surface. Each block is carved with
a symbol, seemingly at random, creating a cipher of unfathomable proportion. Modern
cryptographers have never been able to break this code, and a generous reward is offered to
anyone who can decipher the baffling message. In recent years, geological ultrasounds have
revealed the startling presence of an enormous subterranean vault hidden beneath the chapel. To
this day, the curators of the chapel have permitted no excavation.

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The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has become
controversial recently due to allegations of brainwashing, coercion, and a dangerous practice
knock as corporal mortification. Opus Dei has recently completed construction of a $47
million, 133,000-square-foot North American Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New
York City.

Someone is watching you or are they?

The Louvre Museum in Paris is one of the longest buildings on Earth. Walking around the entire
perimeter of this horseshoe-shaped edifice is a three-mile journey. Even so, the Louvres
collection of art is so vast that only a fraction of its works can be displayed on the walls. Inside
the galleries, a multitude of security cameras watch over visitors. The number of cameras is so
great that a staff of several hundred wardens would be required to monitor all of them. In fact,
most of the cameras are fake.

Da Vincis slap on the wrist

Da Vincis original commission for his famous Madonna of the Rocks came from an
organization knock as the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which needed a painting
for the centerpiece of an altar triptych in their church of San Francesco Grand in Milan. The nuns
gave a Leonardo specific dimensions and a desired theme the Virgin Mary, baby John the
Baptist, Uriel, and Baby Jesus sheltering in a cave. Although da Vinci did as they requested,
when he delivered the work, the group reacted with horror. The painting contained several
disturbing un-Christian anomalies, that seemed to convey a hidden message and alternative
meaning. Da Vinci eventually mollified the confraternity by painting a second version of
Madonna of the Rocks, which now hangs in Londons National Gallery under the name Virgin of
the Rocks. Da Vincis original hangs at the Louvre in Paris.