The Da Vinci Code: The Investigation

With rigor and precision, humor and pedagogy, Frédéric Lenoir and Marie-France Etchegoin conduct "the investigation within the investigation" awaited by the millions of readers of The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is a worldwide bestseller. This success is due to the narrative qualities of this theological thriller, but above all to its incredible thesis: Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child; the Catholic Church has been trying to suppress this explosive truth about the origins of Christianity for centuries.
To support his claims, Dan Brown uses historical facts and numerous symbolic, religious, or artistic references that he "twists," in a way, to fit the novel's plot.
Did Leonardo da Vinci encode his paintings to reveal this hidden truth to initiates? Does the Priory of Sion, the secret society to which he, along with Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo, is said to have belonged, really exist? Did the apocryphal Gospels speak of the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Was it for the sole purpose of hiding this union that Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea in 325? Did the Dead Sea Scrolls bring revelations about Jesus and the early Church?
The true answer to Dan Brown can only be provided by a solid historical investigation coupled with an investigation of the locations – almost all French – of the novel. Thus, Marie-France Etchegoin and Frédéric Lenoir uncover the author's "errors" or inventions, as well as his true sources. At the end of their work, it must be admitted that very often reality surpasses fiction... Marie-France Etchegoin: Marie-France Etchegoin is a senior reporter at Nouvel Observateur. Author of Eva ou la Justice est un roman (Robert Laffont), she is recognized for the quality of her investigations into criminal cases and significant social issues.