I found this book (and the sequel) while browsing at Powell's City of Books. Pinned under a shelf full of Dan Brown books was a card saying that if I liked his books, I should check out Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the non-fiction religion section, so I bit and picked up this, the sequel (The Messianic Legacy) and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln start off with the discovery of French documents that purport to outline a secret history of Jesus after the resurrection wherein he and Mary Magdalene fled to France and settled down, had kids, and fathered a line of French kings that exists to the present day.

Each chapter follows a general pattern: take a document or set of documents, engage in wild speculation about how, with the right set of eyes, you can see how it fits into the grand scheme of things, and admit that it is speculation but that it could be true. Then, begin the next chapter with some variation of, "now that we concretely established X from the previous chapter as true, we will now examine the next bit of evidence". Rinse, repeat.

Although it's all pretty silly, and it was later revealed that the documents they rested their theories on were forgeries, they are far more imaginative than Dan Brown could ever hope to be, so if you're into that kind of conspiracy theory fiction, read the original rather than subjecting yourself to The da Vinci Code, as it is pretty much a fictionalization of Holy Blood Holy Grail. ( )

This book was quite interesting as far as a bit more information on the knights templar. Overall though I found it quite dry and really drawn out. An interesting theory though ( )

The main thesis seems to be bogus but some of the background is worth following up. Overall, fun reading. ( )

Interesting. Slog in places. Preposterous conclusions. ( )

I read this after seeing the documentary on television, which had sparked my interest.

I enjoyed the book and following the various threads it pulls together on its journey. ( )