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mistyd's review against another edition
3.0
This book started off quite strong. It is very fast paced and reads like a movie. The flip side to that is that the characters and story line seemed to lack depth. I was very disappointed in the ending. The last 80-100 pages were very hard to read, and I had to push myself through them.
alexijai98's review against another edition
I know this book is nearly twenty years old but the “dumb woman smart man” trope is really exhausting, especially when the woman literally says to herself “I will not do this thing because it is stupid” then she does it anyway.
mrsbrharris's review against another edition
1.0
This book was just too violent and the f word occurred to many times for me to stomach. I gave up about 100 pages in.
squish93's review against another edition
4.0
An easy, fun read that feels very reminiscent of National Treasurer or the Da Vinci Code. If you're looking for a fast, thrilling read, this is a good choice for you.
qu33nofbookz's review against another edition
2.0
This book was published not even 10 months after The Da Vinci Code and for half the book it was deja vu. However unlike it's predecessor this book was full of short choppy sentences and paragraphs, the characters made such stupid choices I wanted to reach into the book and strangle them. The supposed romantic connection between the two main characters was flat and totally unconvincing. Also when referring to characters use one name unless they are being introduced to another character where a whole name may be needed. (I was so frustrated by the 'heroine' addressing the 'hero' of the story by his last name then his first then his last, back to first every time she spoke to him!). Also giving away the bad guy not even half way through the story then slowly drawing out the climax in fits and starts for the rest of the book only to warp everything up with a pretty little bow in a few short pages not good. Some back ground information was nice but this author spewed out everything we needed to know and a lot we didn't in bouts of verbal vomit that could have been cut down to about half as much and we would still get the history lesson. All in all it was a very fast read that if I had known that half I had already red in another book just months ago I would have skipped this one, the other is superior in all manners.
kennisn's review against another edition
2.0
A decent thriller for fans of The DaVinci Code. Nothing spectacular, but a fairly fun read.
duparker's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh. This book never caught fire, what little I did enjoy fizzled pretty early on. The characters seemed bland and just like every other characer in the post Da Vinci code thriller world.
suutsche's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
dawn_marie's review against another edition
3.0
This is a decent, fast moving, easy-to-read book ... while the story plot is a bit formulaic, it was enjoyable enough to pass the time while traveling.
romanreadingmachine's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
I really enjoyed this book until the big secret was revealed. Spoiler alert: the big secret that would ruin the Catholic Church is that Jesus Christ was not the son of God, and not a divine being. He was a regular carpenter who had a following. I truly don't understand why this would have devastated Christian's faith in God, because most Christians (that I know of) don't actually believe that Jesus Christ walked on water, etc. They mostly accept that the stories in the Bible are metaphors, meant to demonstrate the principles of God in action. This is also the conclusion many religious scholars and historians have arrived at, and it hasn't affected the following of Christianity in the slightest. Also, Jewish people already believe that Jesus Christ was just a prophet and not the actual Son of God, and they still believe in God. Regardless, I still enjoyed the story, it was a fun thriller, but the climax was disappointing and after that, the story fell apart for me. I could not wrap my head around the villain being willing to MURDER people around something that (I think) is already common knowledge. Very violent, and I was confused by the motivation towards the end. Also, they ended up discovering Jesus's diary, but they decide it was best to throw it in the ocean instead of revealing it to the public, because they didn't want to destroy people's faith in God. It's unclear the argument the author is trying to make here: Faith is important, but why is it better to believe in a lie than to believe in nothing?