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See also Da Vinci Code Non-Fiction BooklistDan Brown's The Da Vinci Code continues to be a popular choice for readers. If you can't stand the wait, or read it and would love to read other books with similar plots or themes, check out these titles.
This novel follows one of the art world's greatest mysteries, still unsolved today. In 1716, the King of Prussia presented the Amber Room to Russian Czar Peter the Great. Catherine the Great later moved the room to her summer home outside St. Petersburg, where the room was completed in 1770. The entire structure was made of amber, and was embellished greatly. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the room was dismantled and taken by the German army and has never been seen again. This fictional account of the story explores how rival art collectors of the secret Retrievers of Lost Antiquities are still searching for the Amber Room. Judge Rachel Cutler's father was one of the last people to still know secrets about where the room could be located. When her father turns up suddenly dead, Rachel and her ex-husband Paul decide to join the hunt for finding the room. This novel is extremely fast-paced, full of intrigue, and offers great description of art for art lovers.
This book is considered the "prequel" to the Da Vinci Code, and features world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility after a famous physicist is found dead with a cryptic symbol seared into his chest. This symbol is used by an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati who are trying to carry out their longstanding vendetta against the Catholic Church. Langdon joins forces with the physicist's daughter, Vittoria Vetra to help the Vatican when the Illuminati announce they have a bomb planted in Vatican City.
This fast-paced thriller examines what happens when the Catholic Church prepares to elect a new pope. Suddenly an old and deadly secret society becomes active again, killing a monsignor and activist nun. The nun's brother, lawyer Ben Driskill, travels to Egypt, Paris, Ireland, and Rome to try to avenge her death, while also uncovering dark secrets about the Church.
Father Ian Pearse, a researcher at the Vatican Library, finds an ancient heretical scroll that could destroy the Catholic Church. The Manichaeans, a dangerous sect thought to be inactive, have resurfaced, and Pearse must stop them before harm is done. This book is Rabb's follow-up to The Overseer.
Edward Wozny is a young banker about to depart to England for a new job. With a few weeks left before he leaves, Edward is asked to help one of his firm's most important clients. Instead of an investment job, the job is to unpack and organize the client's personal library of rare books. Edward especially becomes interested when he realizes that a rare medieval codex might be hidden in the library. Margaret Napier, a medieval scholar, soon becomes involved in the search, and the strange history of the codex leads them to a fascinating adventure.
This thriller explores the Catholic Church and its role in the Holocaust. Pope Paul VII is the newly elected Pope who orders an investigation into Pope Pius XII's role in the Holocaust. Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and Israeli agent, becomes involved when his friend, the author of an expose on the Church during World War II, is murdered. This fast-paced thriller uses settings such as the Vatican, Venice, and Munich to draw readers into a dark tale of greed and revenge.
The Vatican has lost its most closely held secret -- a secret whose exposure could shatter the very foundations of Western religion, shift world power and ignite religious violence the likes of which the world has not seen for centuries. The secret? Irrefutable proof of a female Messiah named Sophia. Born in the Holy Land in A.D. 310, Sophia was known for performing healing miracles. Her divinity so threatened early Christian dogma on the inferiority of women that she was executed while still a girl by Church authorities. In the present, Zoe Ridgeway, an art broker, visits Switzerland with her husband, Seth, where she expects to purchase the estate of a German art collector. But before Zoe can complete the transaction, she and Seth are drawn into a thousand-year-old web of conspiracy, murder, and intrigue that begins and ends with the mystery of Sophia -- and all the powerful forces who seek to protect their patriarchies from a divinely feminine truth.*
When two young women in France of 1790 discover the Montglane Chess Service in Montglane Abbey, they recognize its mystic ability to provide anyone playing it with unlimited power and desperately scatter its pieces around the world. But in 1972, computer expert Catherine "Cat" Velis is hired to recover the chess pieces--and is caught up in a nefarious, globe-spanning conspiracy.*
Joe Lassiter is an American detective whose sister and nephew are brutally murdered and then burned. When the man suspected to be the killer escapes from the hospital, Lassiter begins an international chase toward a shocking outcome. This fast-paced novel touches on many science aspects, the Catholic Church, and many complex puzzles of a disturbing conspiracy.
In 1972, a 16-year-old American girl living in Amsterdam with her diplomat father finds a mysterious book in her father’s library. The book has an illustration of a dragon and the word Drakulya written in it, and tucked inside are letters addressed to “my dear and unfortunate reader.” When the girl confronts her father, Paul, on her findings, he reluctantly tells her the story of his former advisor at Oxford, Professor Rossi, who became obsessed with Dracula and who was convinced that Dracula was still alive. When the professor disappears one night, Paul begins to search for him over the years, as well as searching for Dracula. This engrossing, lush novel is told through narratives, flashbacks, and letters, and spans continents and generations.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting a gala opening of an exhibit featuring Vatican treasures. Four men on horseback, dressed as Templars, crash into the show, killing people and stealing a rare encoder. Witnessing the raid is archaeologist Tess Chaykin, who recognizes the men were imitating Knights Templars, and that the encoder they steal must be needed in code breaking that could help solve the mysteries of whatever happened to the Templars and their expensive loot that has never been found. FBI counter-terrorism expert Sean Reilly joins up with Tess to search for the encoder and the message it will eventually decode. Templar secrets, Vatican cover-ups, and a romance between Tess and Sean make this novel a fast-paced read. Since Khoury is a screenwriter, expect this read to be very cinematic.
Draws on the Bible and secular historical research to present a fictional portrait of Mary of Magdala as she becomes part of Jesus' circle of disciples and comes into a realization of her faith.
Set in the 14th century, this complex book follows Brother William of Baskerville as he investigates Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey suspected of heresy. While at the abbey, seven deaths take place in seven days, and Brother William must turn into a detective to help solve the crimes. This highly detailed book gives readers the chance to escape back in time and learn about religious history, monastery life, and a web of hidden secrets.
It has long been rumored in academic circles that a sixteenth-century monk named Eisenreich took Machiavelli several steps further; writing a masterplan for world domination so dangerous the Pope had him killed to suppress it. But Eisenreich's text, On Supremacy, survived. But when the bullet-riddled body of a young girl is found in Montana and "Eisenreich" is her dying word, it becomes terrifyingly clear that not only is the document real - someone is planning to use this explosive piece of history in the late twentieth century. Beautiful, troubled government agent Sarah Trent is given just enough information by her covert office to begin digging into the murder of the young girl. Her search takes her to Columbia University and a brilliant young political theorist named Xander Jaspers, who agrees to help her. On Supremacy has fallen into the hands of a cabal intent on using it as a blueprint for ripping apart society as we know it and creating a new world order out of the ashes of the old. The cabal, led by a coldly intelligent mastermind called the Overseer, begins its campaign of terror.*
In December 1999, archaeologist Catherine Alexander unearths six ancient papyrus scrolls written by a female leader of an early Christian church. A seventh scroll, containing the secrets for eternal life, is missing and Catherine begins a dangerous hunt for the missing scroll. Expect globe-hopping adventures, being chased by villains and plenty of action in this thriller.
Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris are Princeton students trying to solve the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has eluded scholars for centuries. Right before their graduation, an ancient diary surfaces that tells them that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the Renaissance text. With this clue, the two friends enter the bizarre world of Hypnerotomachia, only to soon realize how terrifying the journey will be.
Cotton Malone is a former secret agent who is now living in Copenhagen and is working as a bookseller. His former boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks Malone to join her in investigating how and why a journal belonging to her dead husband has suddenly appeared. Nelle’s husband was a researcher who specialized in the treasures of the Knights Templar – treasures which have never been found. The two quickly learn that the Templar is in fact still active, and will do anything to prevent people from discovering their secrets. This novel by the popular Berry contains anagrams, symbols, art clues, many conspiracies and lots of action.
England's prestigious Plumtree Press is about to release a shocking book that exposes coded messages in a famous novel--codes alleged to be printer's errors. The messages are so treacherous, that if discovered at the original time of publication, the author would have been hung for treason. Now, with someone ruthlessly trying to keep this revealing expose out of stores, Alex Plumtree must protect his star author and family's legacy before the phrase "publish or perish" becomes all too real!* See also Da Vinci Code Non-Fiction Booklist*Summaries are used with permission from Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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The Amber Room 
Angels and Demons 
The Assassini 
The Book of Q 
Codex 
The Confessor 
Daughter of God 
The Eight 
The Genesis Code 
The Historian
The Last Templar
Mary, called Magdalene 
The Name of the Rose 
The Overseer 
The Prophetess 
The Rule of Four
The Templar Legacy
Unbound