I picked this up because I had enjoyed the 'Da Vinci Code.' While I found the writing style of the Da Vinci Code pompous and insipid, it was a great story, and that more than made up for it. Sadly, this early work is unreadable, at least for me. The characters are so unidimensional, and the dialogue so stilted and contrived, that the reader is too distracted to suspend the disbelief necessary to submerge into the plot.