Codebreakers rack their brains to solve Dan Brown's new poser

London Times ^ | 1/2/06 | Ben Hoyle

[wagglebee]

The publisher says the clues are already out there — on the cover of The Da Vinci Code

THE ink is not yet dry on the eagerly awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, but already fans of the publishing phenomenon believe that they have deciphered clues to its plot.

The CIA, the Freemasons, the Mormons and an unfinished pyramid on the US dollar bill are all expected to figure prominently in Dan Brown’s next adventure when it is published this year or early next.

Fevered speculation has been building among the author’s legions of fans since it emerged that hints to The Solomon Key were incorporated into the design of The Da Vinci Code’s American dustjacket.

With worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies, including 4 million in Britain, The Da Vinci Code and its blend of conspiracy theories, shadowy secret societies and thrilling adventure has already spawned an industry of its own.

A film version of the novel, starring Tom Hanks as the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, and Audrey Tautou, who played the title role in Amélie in 2001, as the French cryptographer Sophie Neveu, opens in May.

Bookshops are overflowing with parodies and with works promising to examine the issues raised in The Da Vinci Code. A further spate of books is attempting to pre-empt the subject matter of the sequel. In Secrets of the Widow’s Son, for example, the journalist David Shugarts purports to offer an “explorer’s field guide to understanding the main themes, ideas, symbols and historical issues which author Dan Brown will most likely utilise in The Solomon Key”.

A veteran of The Da Vinci Code industry, he and his team of researchers believe that Mr Brown has chosen Washington as the location for his next novel after setting Robert Langdon’s previous adventures in Paris, London and Rome.

In The Guide to Dan Brown’s The Solomon Key, Greg Taylor suggests that the new book will refer to the Masonic and Utopian views prevalent among the founding fathers of the United States and to the Skull and Bones society, the secret Yale brotherhood to which both candidates in the 2004 US presidential election once belonged. He also highlights conspiracy theories linking the unfinished pyramid on the US dollar bill to the Masons.

Doubleday, Brown’s publisher, has posted a “webquest” on the internet as part of its advance marketing strategy for the new book. The webquest challenges budding codebreakers to unravel a series of puzzles starting with the ciphers and symbols that are “already in your possession”.

The site says: “Disguised on the jacket of The Da Vinci Code, numerous encrypted messages hint at the subject matter of Dan Brown’s next Robert Langdon novel.”

A faint grid reference written in reverse on the cover leads, with an adjustment of one degree, to a sculpture called Kryptos in the courtyard of the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Kryptos is covered in about 1,800 letters of code, much of which is still a mystery despite its location at the workplace of some of the world’s shrewdest cryptographers.

A further clue on the jacket is visible with a magnifying glass. Some of the lettering describing the plot is in bolder type than the rest. When read separately from the other words the letters read: “Is there no help for the widow’s son?” Those words, a Masonic call for help, have been linked to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known as the Mormons.

He started to say them as he fell to his death from a window after he was shot and fatally wounded by the mob who stormed his prison cell in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844.

Brown is reluctant to betray too many details but he has said that he grew up surrounded by the “Masonic lodges of our fathers” and confirmed that his next novel would be set “within the oldest fraternity in history, the enigmatic brotherhood of the Masons”.

[wagglebee]

So now the masons and the Mormons will be blamed for creating Skull and Bones and producing George Bush.

[teenyelliott]

I don't get it. I read the book, and thought it was really stupid.

[mnehring]

Oh goody, another book/movie to make people think the Masons are a big evil conspiracy that controls the world...
Dan Brown isn't a bad author as long as you take his writing as the fiction it is.. the problem is too many people take his books seriously.

[Flavius]

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thedavincicode/

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Amen to that!

[Servant of the 9]

A film version of the novel, starring Tom Hanks as the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, and Audrey Tautou, who played the title role in Amélie in 2001, as the French cryptographer Sophie Neveu, opens in May.

So now we know when the book will come out.
It probably would have anyway to catch the summer vacation reading surge.

So9

[Texas WOP]

Just too easy......

"You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your..............."

[cryptical]

I don't get it. I read the book, and thought it was really stupid.

I thought he did a good job of weaving a story around a bunch of conspiracy theories that have been around a long time. It's not fine literature, but fine literature usually doesn't amuse me as much.

[siunevada]

Brown...confirmed that his next novel would be set “within the oldest fraternity in history, the enigmatic brotherhood of the Masons”.

I'm looking forward to learning the hidden meanings of that obscure ritual activity known to some as "The Kegger".

[Lizavetta]

I got to 100 pages or so and stopped. It was too much - too many coincidences, the protagonists too lucky in their ability to solve mysteries, just basically too unbelievable. You can take the breakneck speed factor and overdo it, which I believe was done in this book.

[teenyelliott]

It was like reading an I Love Lucy episode, only fancier.

"Oh, look, they are going to get caught. Oh, look, they got away. Oh, look, they are going to get caught. Oh,look, . . .

And then the ending: "Hey, let's get together later and have sex."

"Okay."

The End.

Fabulous writing. The stuff of legend. Or at least worthy of making a stupid movie.

[martin_fierro]

42. The answer is 42.

[wagglebee]

I'm looking forward to learning the hidden meanings of that obscure ritual activity known to some as "The Kegger".

It's an ancient practice designed to insure that the regurgitation reflexes function correctly.

[atomicpossum]

Tom Clancy for Conspiracy Nuts?

[Lizavetta]

Hey, has anyone here read The Lost Painting about a missing Carraveggio? I think the author is Jonathan Harr or something like that.

[Sacajaweau]

Sounds George Washington related...He was THE BIG MASON in Williamsburg, Va. and their are many references to events he attended as being done in "Masonic Fashion".

There was also a 1750 Fraternity at William and Mary College in Williamsbugh Virginia. The name appears in letters only (FHC) and no one ever has said what the Latin would be. Thomas Jefferson was a member of this "Secret Club".

In the 19th and 20th century, it called the Flat Hat Club. It was specific to friendship, mirth, conviviality, science and charity.

Anyone remember their Latin?? Wanna Guess?

[badpacifist]

Just a reminder .....Dan Brown ...writer of FICTION.

[Sacajaweau]

Fiction it is. I enjoy historical novels but the DaVinci Code doesn't even rate that.

[GovGirl]

I thought the same thing about the ending. The story had a great lead up and wove in some interesting history, but the end just fell flat. It was like Dan Brown got tired of writing and just decided to end the book as fast as he could.

I'm surprised that the focus of the next book will be on the Masons considering that "National Treasure" was releasesd not too long ago.

[rlmorel]

I thought it was entertaining.

What I find stupid and borderline scary are the people who somehow think this novel has a basis in reality, kind of like the same people who thought that Oliver Stone's "JFK" was a documentary.