The James Logan Courier

By Abhishek Saluja, Courier Book Editor



One of the most famous and talked about writers of recent times, Dan Brown is considered by many as an incredible storyteller. Simultaneously many comment and denounce the thoughts involved in his writing. However, from a reader’s perspective his novel The Da Vinci Code unfolds intriguingly.

Jacques Sauniere, is shot in cold blood and dies inside the Louvre Museum of Paris. His granddaughter Sophie Neveu, is now without her only known relative. Professor Robert Langdon is approached with the request to decipher Sauniere’s last message.



His message contains information about the Holy Grail; and Sauniere’s involvement with this information has caused his death. Robert Langdon is mentioned in this message and this causes the police to become suspicious.

Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu evade the police and decide to deduce the message on their own. After evading the police the two visit the Mona Lisa and find “So Dark The Con of Man” written on the painting. This propels them toward the next clue; and Sophie finds a key hidden behind a painting which her grandfather showed her before.

The story takes off from here it turns into an exciting page‑turning tale which does not let up until the very end.

The search for the Holy Grail takes the two to a sophisticated bank, where her grandfather put his most valuable object. The sequence of numbers left by Sauniere at his death scene is the account number to the bank vault.

Inside Sauniere’s vault is a cryptex holding the key to the Holy Grail. They are incapable of deciphering the cryptex by themselves and seek help from Langdon’s friend Leigh Teabing.

Teabing is extremely educated about the Holy Grail, and surprises Sophie with the amount of information he reveals to her. The information revealed is highly controversial; the Bible, Jesus, and Mary are given a new description.

All along the way an antagonist by the name of Silas is attempting to lay his hands on the cryptex. Teabing’s resources allow the group to escape Silas, and the police; they escape and fly in Teabing’s plane to London.

The puzzle seems impossible to solve, when the cryptex is opened there is another small cryptex inside it. Langdon and Sophie pursue the Grail relentlessly.

Teabing then shows his true colors and turns on the pair; he seeks the secret of the Grail for himself and will murder to discover it.

Sophie is from a special blood line and furthermore is connected to the Grail quite personally. Langdon was chosen to help Sophie for in his writings he expressed his thoughts about the Grail, and they were accurate. Sauniere saw that Langdon was talented enough and chose him to help his granddaughter discover the secret.

The secret must live on and after Sauniere’s death Sophie and Langdon take on the task. A story which educates about history, and simultaneously entertains; it should be read by those who seek fast paced interesting novels.