I have absolutely no interest in The Da Vinci Code or any books of that sort, but I picked this up for two reasons: my last name is Cato, and it was only $2 for a hardcover at the Phoenix VNSA sale. Personally relevant and cheap!

I was pleasantly surprised by this massive book. Once it got going, I was completely snared. The main character, Ottavia, is a high-ranking nun working in the Vatican. She specializes in ancient manuscripts and research, and therefore she's stunned when her superiors need her expertise in a new assignment - identifying unusual tattoos on the corpse of a dead Ethiopian. To complicate things more, the dead man was carrying along bits of the True Cross - the one Jesus died upon - and bears scarification that suggests a long-lost religious order may not be lost after all. Along with a stoic Swiss Army captain and brilliant Coptic Egyptian, the three of them work through linguistic riddles and discover the key to everything is hidden in plain sight - Dante's The Divine Comedy. As other churches around the world reel from the theft of their fragments of the Cross, Ottavia and the others rush to join this hidden order so they can stop the pilfering and confront the enigmatic leader of the group, Cato.

Reading the book reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is an intelligent, well-researched book and it was a great deal of fun. The ending had a nice twist that was followed by a bit of a cliche, but that was fine. I was concerned that I'd go through all 458-pages and be disgusted by the ending, as I was recently with Edgar Sawtelle, but that wasn't the case here. It ended like it should. I have no regrets about this $2 purchase. ( )

I am definately going to abandon this particular thriller genre where an object of great historical signifigance -- in this case fragments of 'Lignum Crucis,' the wood of the cross on which Christ was crucified -- launch our protagonists on an international adventure. These stories almost always disappoint me in the end.

Our narrator is a nun who is swept up in this mystery - she and her colleagues (one of whom she so predictably falls in love with) use Dante's Divine Commedy as a guide to passing initiation rights and gleaning the location of the true cross. If this sounds ridiculous . . . it's because it is.

I did enjoy the plethora of history about the Ancient world, early Christianity, and the Byzantine Empire - truly it is the one thing that perhaps made it worth reading. But the prose and dialogue were wooden making it easy to put the book down down or drift off even during the ostensibly exciting parts.

Oh Well - as I said, last of this genre for me. A generous 3 stars. ( )

Better than the 'DaVinci Code' but that's not saying alot. The book works up until the last few chapters, then it suffers the same flaw as 'The Divine Comedy' - writing about paradise is less interesting than hell. But that is one kickass nun! ( )

Great story involving a Professor, a Nun and a Swiss Guard Captain seeking out, on behalf of the Vatican, the secret sect that is stealing Christian relics. With Dante's Divine Comedy as their guide they negotiate all manner of tests in the pursuit. I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. There is some predictability but also plenty of surprises. Overall its very well written - although I think that the translation into English stumbled in a couple of spots. ( )

The action is great and the development of the story keeps you on your toes. So glad it was translated into English ( )