I'm not sure how much of a "codebreaker" I'd call this. I only made it a little way into section B (it's arranged alphabetically), and there were a lot of facts that I'm not sure are related to The Da Vinci Code, and some that are just random. For example, do we need to know what "AD," "BC," and "BCE" mean? Are there really that many people who don't know what those mean? Okay, include them, for shiggles, just in case. However, how is Ceasar Augustus related to Dan Brown's book, or to Christianity (I'm giving Garlow some leeway on some of the terms, thinking maybe he included them because they're related to Christianity/Catholicism, and so he's giving those as background information, since The Da Vinci Code is about Christianity/Catholicism)? Nothing in the entry makes it seem relevant at all, except the sentence "Jesus Christ was born during this era, and the speed with which Christianity spread throughout the ancient world may be partly attributed to the roads and shipping routes associated with Caesar Augustus." Really? That's worthy of an entry? Hmmm.... And do authors (like Richard Abanes) who wrote other books about The Da Vinci Code really warrant their own entries in this book?

Final analysis: There are some terms I can see being useful as reference while you're reading Dan Brown's book, but if you've already read other books about The Da Vinci Code, this book isn't really revolutionary. Check it out from the library and return it when you're done reading The Da Vinci Code, but don't buy it.

You know what, "The Da Vinci Code" actually does require a 200 page reference to piece a lot of the claims together. This book, though biasedly Christian, goes into everything!

The biggest thing cleared up for me was when Dan Brown said that the GOSPEL OF PHILIP has the Aramaic word for "companion" which equates to "spouse". This book revealed that the Gospel of Philip only exists in COPTIC...which is a great example of Dan Brown pulling stuff out of his ass...


Also the Albigensian Crusade (1208-1229) by Pope Innocent III is explained really well.

I was OK with the dictionary format but often frustrated by statements that waited until the end to indicate they were false. I would have liked to have this as an accompaniment when I read the. Da Vinci Code. Much new or refined information for me but disappointing to hear bias re: religion and feminism in a "dictionary".