It might be the “Satanic Verses” for Christians. The Vatican is not too happy about it. It undoes some of the teachings of the Catholic Church. I cannot see this work ever becoming a classic even though it has been hugely popular. Of course, it is all linked to Da Vinci. In his painting of the “Last Supper” of Jesus and the twelve disciples, the person on the right hand side of Christ is possibly a woman. The disciples are supposed to be all men. The Church does not admit to any of the disciples being a woman. Perhaps this is the reason for the Church’s opposition to the ordination of women as priests, bishops, cardinals, etc. According to the Church’s teaching the twelve disciples were all men. How could Leonardo painting an event that took place about 1,500 years earlier know that one of the disciples was a woman? The implication it raises is whether Jesus was married to this woman who is probably Mary Magdalene and did they have children. Both are quite possible. But not according to the Church’s teaching. I cannot fault the work for creativity. It is easy to read and darned exciting. The story hovers between the worlds of fact and fiction. It delves heavily into cryptology, symbolism, and secret codes. Although I am usually defeated by cryptic crosswords, I am happy to brag that I did discover the final password, which defeated the main characters for some time, before it was revealed in the text. The story meanders from one exotic location to another. The illustrated edition includes photographs of the various locations and the buildings in which the events occurred. This is an innovation I have not previously seen in a work of fiction. I guess it is the interface between the truth and the fiction that facilitates this approach. No doubt it saves the writer from attempting graphic descriptions of the things far better illustrated in the photographs and allows the writer to concentrate on the fiction. The final location is the Roslin Chapel, a few miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland and just a few miles from where my sister lives. I must admit that I am rather tempted to add to the hoards of visitors to the Chapel since the publication of this novel. One of my friends thought the book was a load of rubbish and gave up reading it. Perhaps it was too much for her Christian sensibilities. I find this new interpretation somewhat appealing and perhaps more credible. It is all tied up with the Knights Templar. The Knights went to the crusades. They were exterminated by the Church on Black Friday. I do not know much about them except that they came up in “The Avignon Quartet” of novels by Lawrence Durrell which I have mentioned in an earlier posting about that author. I recently came across the statistic that five million women were burnt at the stake as witches. Joan D’Arc was but one of them. I have always wondered what those guys had in their heads that they had to have an 18 year old burnt at the stake. If they feared loss of their jobs to women, they should see us now!!!