Holy Grail!

Beyond The Da Vinci Code

If you liked Dan Brown's Best-Selling novel, here are some other adventures featuring old relics, talismans, secret society's, enigmatic hieroglyphics, coded manuscripts, and ancient mysteries you might enjoy...

Will Adams. THE ALEXANDER CIPHER. GCP, 2009.
Archeaologist Daniel Knox is in his element when construction workers unearth what may be the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. He soon finds himself in a dangerous race against rival archeologists, Egyptian officials, and Macedonian nationalists to claim one of the greatest treasures of all time. Followed by: The Exodus Quest (2010).

Matilde Asensi. THE LAST CATO. Rayo, 2006.
Sister Ottavia Salina, paleographer and Vatican archivist, joins forces with a captain in the Swiss Guard and a renowned archaeologist to investigate the theft of international relics. They find themselves in a deadly race to find the secret location of the the True Cross on which Christ was crucified and wrest it from the ancient brotherhood determined to possess it. By the same author: Everything Under the Sky (2008).

Wilton Barnhardt. GOSPEL. St. M., 1993.
Concerns the search for a lost first-century gospel of the Bible that could shake the foundations of Christianity.

Steve Berry. THE AMBER ROOM. Ballantine, 2003
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler is perplexed by the clues he leaves behind to the secret of the "Amber Room," which, so the legend goes, was appropriated by the Nazis when they invaded the Soviet Union at the end of WWII. Rachel takes off for Germany to search for answers along with her concerned ex-husband, Paul. Soon they find themselves in danger and on a collision course with the forces of greed, power, and even history itself. By the same author: The Romanov Prophecy (2004), The Third Secret (2005), The Templar Legacy (2006), The Alexandria Link (2007), The Charlemagne Pursuit (2008), The Paris Vendetta (2009).

Matt Bondurant. THE THIRD TRANSLATION. Hyperion, 2005.
Walter Rothschild, an American Egyptologist living in London is hired by the British Museum to unlock the riddle of the Stela of Paser, one of the last and most important hieroglyphic mysteries in existence. He is subsequently seduced by a mysterious woman who then steals an ancient papyrus containing the key to Stela of Paser's enigmatic hieroglyphics and finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that leads him to a modern-day cult of the Egyptian sun Godal.

William Brodrick. THE SIXTH LAMENTATION. Viking, 2003
Ex-barrister Father Anselm is asked by the Vatican to investigate the history of a man seeking asylum at his priory—a suspected Nazi war criminal.

Dan Brown. ANGELS & DEMONS. Atria, 2003, 2000.
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is called in when mysterious symbols are linked to the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati--and Vatican City is the target. By the same author: The Lost Symbol. (2009).

T. Davis Bunn. GOLD OF KINGS. Howard, 2009.
Antiques dealer/art historian Storm Syrell, whose grandfather has suspiciously died, teams up with treasure hunter Harry Bennett to follow a series of clues in the dead man's journal. Will Storm decipher the mysteries leading to the sacred relic, or be defeated by the foes racing to claim it and destroy her?

Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. THE RULE OF FOUR. Dial, 2004.
As four brilliant Princeton roommates come close to solving the riddle of a mysterious, coded 15th-century manuscript, they find their lives in mortal danger.

John Case. THE GENESIS CODE. FC, 1997.
Joe Lassiter’s investigation of the murders of his sister & nephew lead him to Italy and a militant Catholic sect.

Richard Doetsch. THE THIEVES OF HEAVEN. Bantam, 2006.
They are the most important treasure in the Vatican museum and when master thief Michael St. Pierre steals two keys which supposedly protect the secret of salvation for a mysterious German businessman who offers in return to pay all the medical bills for Michael's cancer-stricken wife, he unwittingly sets in motion a deadly plot that brings him face to face with an insidious enemy.

Umberto Eco. THE NAME OF THE ROSE. HBJ, 1983.
In 1327, Brother William Baskerville’s investigation of Franciscans in an Italian abbey suspected of heresy overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths. By the same author: FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM. HBJ, 1989.

Thomas Gifford. THE ASSASSINI. Bantam, 1990.
When lawyer Ben Driskill realizes the Church will not investigate the murder of his sister—a Nun—he sets out to find the murderer himself--and uncovers a secret society with its roots deep in church history.

Lev Grossman. CODEX. Harcourt, 2004.
An investment banker asked to unpack a collection of rare books including one that some scholars believe predicts the coming of the Apocalypse.

A. J. Hartley. ON THE FIFTH DAY. Berkley, 2007.
When his brother, a Catholic priest, dies under mysterious circumstances while researching the history of Christian symbols in the Philippines, Thomas Knight retraces his brother's steps and comes up against a fanatical cabal of agents who are determined to keep the truth buried forever. By the same author: The Mask of Atreus (2006), What Time Devours (2009).

Richard E. Heller & Rachel F. Heller. THE 13TH APOSTLE. Harper, 2007.
The discovery of a 12th-century diary in the ruins of a medieval monastery leads American cybersleuth Gil Pearson and Sabbie Karaim, former Israeli commando and biblical translator, on a global quest to find a copper scroll which may reveal the truth about the life and death of Jesus. But others also seek this explosive treasure.

Nicholas Kilmer. LAZARUS ARISE. Poisoned Pen, 2001.
Fred Taylor inadvertently comes into the possession of a 15th-century illuminated manuscript which may have been stolen.

Ross King. EX-LIBRIS. Walker & Co., 2001, c1998.
Intrigue and adventure abound when London bookseller Isaac Inchbold is hired to find an arcane manuscript of alchemy and becomes embroiled in a dark conspiracy.

Raymond Khoury. THE LAST TEMPLAR. Dutton, 2005.
An archeologist joins forces with an FBI agent when four horsemen, dressed as Templars, ride their steeds up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and steal a coding device that will reveal the location of the long-lost treasure of the Templars. By the same author: The Sanctuary (2007).

Glenn Kleier. THE LAST DAY. Warner, 1997.
In the wake of a mysterious cataclysmic event the sole survivor proclaims herself the new messiah.

Elizabeth Kostova. THE HISTORIAN. LB, 2005.
A young woman discovers an ancient book and a cache of old letters in her father's library which sends her on an adventurous quest for the truth about the sinister Vlad the Impaler. Her search will span continents and generations, and lead to a confrontation with the darkest powers of evil.

Gregg Loomis. THE PEGASUS SECRET. Leisure, 2005.
Ex-spy Lang Reilly arrives in Paris to find the truth surrounding the suspicious deaths of his sister and nephew in an explosion. When it seems as if their deaths are linked to a painting by the 17th-century artist Poussin with a strange Latin inscription she purchased the day before, Reilly's investigation leads him through a dark labyrinth of history and religion where the secrets of the Knights Templar are revealed...secrets which could destroy Christianity. By the same author: The Julian Secret (2006), Gates of Hades (2007), The Sinai Secret (2008).

Eric Lustbader. TESTAMENT. Forge, 2006.
After his father dies in a mysterious explosion, medieval scholar and cryptanalyst "Bravo" Shaw learns that he was a high-ranking member of a supposedly long defunct followers of St. Francis of Assisi. The Order of Gnostic Observatines has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christianity to its foundations and Dexter Shaw, the last keeper of the documents, has made sure that only Bravo can find their secret hiding place. But others are determined to find them as well.

Scott Mariani. THE MOZART CONSPIRACY. S&S, 2011.
Opera singer Leigh Llewellyn sets oout to discover the link between her brother's murder and the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose final opera, The Magic Flute, may contain a secret code that a rogue masonic order does not want revealed.

Esteban Martin & Andreu Carranza. THE GAUDI KEY. Warner, 2008.
Charged with protecting a sacred relic, a former apprentice to a master architect and member of an ancient religious brotherhood guards the object until his death and subsequently leaves it to his unsuspecting granddaughter. But María doesn't know what the relic is, where it is located, or what she needs to do with it after she finds it.

Brad Meltzer. THE BOOK OF FATE. Warner, 2006.
For presidential aide Wes Holloway, a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, some mysterious facts buried deep in Masonic history, and a two-hundred-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson, hold the keys to the assassination attempt against the presidential eight years earlier that left him guilt-ridden and disfigured.

Thomas Monteleone. THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. T. Doherty, 1993.
A Jesuit priest who begins to manifest supernatural powers of healing and destruction, becomes the target of a Vatican investigation while he tries to uncover the secret of his true identity. Followed by: The Reckoning (1999)

Julie Navarroe. THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE HOLY SHROUD. Bantam, 2007, 2006.
A fire at the Turin cathedral and subsequent discovery of a mutilated corpse are linked to the mysterious origins of the relic millions believe to be the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ and a secret brotherhood of powerful men with roots tied to the Knights Templar who are after it.

Katherine Neville. THE EIGHT. Ballantine, 1989.
The search is on for a jeweled chess set once given to Charlemagne that is said to possess extraordinary powers. By the same author: The Magic Circle (1998) and The Fire (2008).

Matthew Pearl. THE DANTE CLUB. RH, 2003.
This literary mystery pits a serial killer using Dante's Inferno as his inspiration against the collective brilliant minds of poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow & James Russell Lowell, physician Oliver Wendell Holmes and publisher J.T. Fields who are working to produce the first major American translation of the Italian author's Divine Comedy. As they race against time the amateur detectives discover that the killer may be closer than they suspect.