The book was an excellent mystery. The fact that so many people actually wonder how much is true and debate the accuracy of Brown's "facts" in a
work of fiction, indicates exactly how engrossing and well done this book is. Most people don't read fiction to determine the history of the Catholic church or how we came to be a patriarchial society.
I have the book in front of me, and on Dan Brown's fact page it states: "The Priory of Sion - a European secret society founded in 1099.........." Now the date is debatable, as some say it was a hoax formed in 1956 by two con men..but it does exist, even if not exactly proven to be in the manner described by Brown.
It goes on to say, "The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect........." It is also controversial but does exist.
http://www.opusdei.org/
The fact page ends by saying, " All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." I have no idea if they are or aren't, but their use certainly added to my enjoyment of the book.
I think a book that causes people to question and search for answers cannot be a bad thing, no matter how inaccurate its depiction of history may be. Anyone who actually faults a
novel for its lack of factual accuracy must be confused about what they were reading.
That said, I'm waiting for the movie to come out on DVD. I pick and choose my 2 hour/$8 investments carefully
.
Stormie