Seems everybody who can’t sell a book any other way is out to make a fast buck off of the success of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code phenomenon. Now comes a slew of non-fiction books devoted to debunking, explaining, agreeing with or arguing against the material Brown used in his fiction novel. Add to that The Da Vinci Codebreaker, a self-described easy-to-use fact checker written by three decidedly Christian authors who, it soon becomes obvious, have a rather anti-Brown slant.

The book is filled with facts, statistics and information that explain many of the people, places, events and terms used in Brown’s novel. It is an easy-to-navigate guide, as everything is in alphabetical order, and much of the material is somewhat objective, with just a hint of an attitude that obviously disagrees with Brown’s research. Mainstream Christians and conservatives will learn a lot about the historical background of their religion, as will those who follow a different path, but don’t let this book be the final say, especially for those who seek the real truth, which is never that obvious. As they often say in politics, follow the source.

The authors are clearly biased towards their own conservative beliefs, which may cast a shade of grey on some of their interpretations of the historical, spiritual and symbolic materials the book covers. Some of their “facts” are downright skewed, as is their rewriting of history regarding the Mithraic influence on Christianity and their personal decision that the pentagram was a symbol debased not by the church, but by Satanists. Sorry, folks, but there is an abundance of historical and factual data to knock down that argument (among others). This kind of bias serves no one, but it does sell books to the audience it was intended to.

Still, this is a good primer for getting details that the novel and movie simply don’t have time to give, and hopefully this book, and others like it, will prompt readers to find their own truths, and take their own journeys of discovery. Nobody has broken the code yet, not this book nor any other. But I imagine they each have one piece of the puzzle to offer to anyone who is willing to look a little deeper and go beyond the prejudices of the authors on both sides of the proverbial fence.