Why The Da Vinci Code Works

By Sarah Winn

What makes The Da Vinci Code so appealing to readers? I decided this is a question all writers of modern fiction should ask themselves. So, when the paperback edition came out, I bought a copy, armed myself with a handful of multicolored highlighters, and set out on a treasure hunt.

I remembered the story as fast-paced, and thinking pace must be one of its better features, I looked for characteristics of pacing. The short chapters immediately jumped out at me. When the prologue and epilogue are included, the chapters average 4.5 pages in length. The time line of the story is also short, with most of the action occurring within a 24-hour period.

Since Jack Bickham, in Scene and Sequel (Writer's Digest Books, 1993), states that sequels slow pacing, I looked for passages in The Da Vinci Code where characters thought about what had happened, examined their feelings, and decided what they would do next. Freestanding sequels that contain all of these elements are hard to find, and when found are brief. The yellow ink I used for internalization occurs with great regularity throughout the book. The hot pink for emotions is sprinkled in discrete intervals, and when writing about emotions, the author does not hesitate to use the f-word (felt). The bright blue for decisions appears rarely and the reader is sometimes told only that a decision has been made. He must keep reading to find out what it is.

So, some aspects of the book do sped up pacing, but other qualities in the nearly 500 pages seem more likely to weigh it down. Historical background and character backstories are plentiful. Most of the backstories and some of the background appear as flashbacks. A good part of the plot revolves around people trying to solve intricate puzzles. The number of point of view characters used is staggering, 23 or 24 if you count one character's alias. Some of these characters are the main players and some are so insignificant that they are identified only by title (the guard, the chief inspector, an altar boy, etc.).

Another surprising find was how green the book was after I finished using the highlighters. I used this color for setting. The first few chapters look like a summer forest, but green occurs with great regularity throughout the book. Descriptions of characters' appearance or clothing are given, but the majority of the setting revolves around the physical surroundings: buildings (inside and out), landscape, streets, lighting, odors, and noises. People don't ride in cars or limos, but in Fiats or Audis, and those vehicles turn onto named streets and boulevards. Some articles that play a role in the story are described more than once, such as Bishop Aringarosa's ring and the mechanical knight on Jacques Sauiére's desk.

Aside from giving a sense of place, setting also helps with the frequent changes in point of view. Immediately telling the reader she's in a different place makes her expect a different character and reminds her of what was happening the last time this character appeared.

Changes in point of view contribute to rising tension. While Robert and Sophie frantically search for answers to the riddles her murdered grandfather left, the police search for Robert and Sophie as prime suspects in the murder. Without dropping into the policemen's points of view, the reader would not know how close the police are to capturing the fugitives.

With such a short timeline and a large cast of characters, a lot of things happen simultaneously in this book. The author frequently jumps back and forth between ongoing scenes. For example, while Robert and Sophie search for clues in the Da Vinci gallery of the Louvre, Silas, the creepy monk, searches in Saint-Sulpice Church, unaware Sister Sandrine is watching him. The book flashes between these two scenes at least three times, giving the impression of concurrent events and building tension toward a coming disaster.

Action scenes are not the only ones interrupted. The lengthy historical accounts needed to justify the plot are given in parts, either through dialogue or internalization. At times, Robert, a professor, flashes back to lectures he's given on the subject. The flashbacks used for characters' backstories are also interrupted. A third of the way into the book we're shown a visit Bishop Aringarosa made to Castel Gandolfo six months earlier. He receives bad news but we aren't told what until near the end of the book where another flashback finishes the scene and explains what drew the Bishop into the story. Dividing large blocks of information helps to prevent the dreaded "info dumps" that may jar the reader out of a story.

Another device the author uses to keep the reader reading is to present no information until the reader has a need for it. From the opening of the book, the reader is bombarded by a stream of questions: Why murder a museum curator? What's the secret he's willing to die for? Why is he terrified that the secret will die with him? Why does he spend his last moments of life arranging his body into a grotesque scene? Why does he involve Robert, a man he's never met? The answers to some of these questions are contained in the historical background and/or character backstories, making them important information rather than distractions.

Dividing the presentation of a particular plotline also serves to enhance suspense. For example, the question arises as to why Sophie has been estranged from her grandfather for ten years. Through her thoughts and dialogue, the reader learns she saw her grandfather doing something that upset her. A little less than a third of the way into the book, a flashback shows her happening upon a strange ritual, but the scene stops before the reader actually "sees" the grandfather. About two-thirds of the way through the book, after a talk with Robert about the possible meaning of the ritual, another flashback shows exactly what she saw. Yet, it's in the next to last chapter in the book that Sophie meets a new character who fully explains what she saw. If all of the flashback had been presented in a single scene early on in the book, the poignancy this plotline added to the ending would have been lost.

Perhaps the real secret of reader appeal lies in the sense of "audience participation" this book gives the reader. Dan Brown has created a complex novel based on a legend everyone in the western world is familiar with, the search for the Holy Grail. He gives the legend an unexpected twist and catches the reader up in a scavenger hunt disguised as an artsy/religious mystery. He uses setting to give the reader a sense of "being there," and copious amounts of research to give his plot an authoritative ring.

His greatest achievement, however, is to sequence the multi-layered plot and the large amount of needed background material in such a way that the reader never loses interest. He does this with the aplomb of a cat burglar successfully burglarizing the penthouse in a high-security skyscraper.

Sarah Winn won the Eppie for the best electronically published historical romance of 2003. She has seven electronically published works now available. You can read about them at www.Sarahwinn.com.

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