The Diva Review:
All of the hype surrounding this book makes it seem like one of the great historical mysteries. I'm sorry to say, this isn't even close to the Da Vinci Code. Not by a long shot. But it is a good story – in its way. Its one of those books that you'd think was a real gem if you found it on the remainders table. Now that it's in mass market paperback, it might be fun for an easy summer read. Publishers Weekly compares it to a mix of Dan Brown, Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. I can promise you, discerning reader, this is definitely NOT the case. I happen to love Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. Trust me, these guys aren't even in the same universe. But they give it a good try.
The book is a little slow and two of the secondary characters seem interchangeable for the first half of the book. They turn out to be foils, but it takes quite a while to figure that out. There isn't really enough character development early on.
I'm not typically a fan of books written by two people, but Caldwell and Thomason do an admirable job. They throw in the usual devices – murder, romance, deception, danger, conpsiracy. It's the unraveling of a mystery. Four friends from Princeton become involved in deciphering the messages of an ancient manuscript. I guess the real problem is I didn't really care what the message was.
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