Helpful Score: 4
I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! While the story is reminiscent of "The Da Vinci Code", this book is even better. The beginning of the book is somewhat dry with its exhaustive background on the Catholic Church and the Staurofilakes, but reading through that is well worth it!
Helpful Score: 2
THE LAST CATO by Matilde Asensi: Dr. Ottavia Salina, a brilliant and highly esteemed paleographer, is working away at her classified workspace deep within Vatican City when her routine is interrupted. She is given the task of deciphering the strange tattoos --- seven Greek letters and seven crosses --- found on an Ethiopian man's corpse. Found next to what was left of the body were three pieces of wood --- suspected by Vatican scholars to be fragments of the Vera Cruz, actual splinters from the Cross on which Christ was crucified. Actually written in Spain prior to the explosion of religious-themed thrillers such as THE DA VINCI CODE, THE LAST TEMPLAR, THE TEMPLAR LEGACY and THE SECRET SUPPER, it follows the now familiar line uncovering deceptions, corruption and outright lies that have shaped the truth as we know it. What hath Dan Brown wrought?
I thought this book was good until the end and then it seemed a little to far fetched to keep in line with the rest of the book. Lots of interesting historical data though.
