The DaVinci Code (2004)

By Dan Brown
I bought this book at Melbourne airport, as the Virginia Woolf I was reading at the time really wasn’t working out. Woolf requires solitude and silence, which is not what you find in the average departure lounge.

The DaVinci Code proved to be an excellent departure lounge novel, although I suspect if I read it in silence and solitude it might not hold up so well – it did cross my mind once or twice that the whole thing was a bit far-fetched. However, whether it was gory murders, albino monks, high-tech surveillance gear, secret societies or pagan sex rites, the DaVinci Code had it all. You could even pretend you were educating yourself about the history of Christianity at the same time. I would have liked a few more Matthew-Reilly-style italics to let me know when things were really amazing, though.

Perhaps I should try re-reading The Flanders Panel in a departure lounge, to see if I like it better? Incidentally, the DaVinci Code was fairly free of VTA (Violence Towards Art), except for a few Caravaggios that were handled rather roughly.

Rating: 8 out of 10