Renaissance art is one of my favorite things to view and ponder. So much was going on in the known world at that point that it seems each painting or sculpture has its own separate message, its own double persona. When I find out that a novel is coming out about a piece of art, I usually jump on it and read it, and this book is no different. Oh yes, you may hear people say that it is just another ‘Da Vinci Code' split off but that is not true. The truth is that this was originally published in Spanish in 2004, giving it no time to copy the bestselling blockbuster by Dan Brown. The plot that awaits one on these printed pages is totally separate, with its own unique and, dare I say, better quality.

It is 1497 and the Church is being threatened- from within its own walls. Right under the noses of the monks at Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan , Italy , a certain artist named Leonardo da Vinci is hiding a vast secret in his new work, The Last Supper . This huge mural, taking up an entire wall in the refectory of the monastery, depicts the moment during Christ's last meal with his disciples where he announces that one of them will betray him. All this information is received by an organization called the Secretariat of Keyes in Rome , which is responsible for the protection of the pope. The author of the mysterious letters announcing the deception has simply been named The Soothsayer.

Father Agostino Leyre, a Dominican monk in the Secretariat, is sent to Milan to unearth this mystery. He suspects that the Soothsayer must be a monk himself and is most likely living within the walls of Santa Maria . Upon his arrival, he is greeted by a friendly monk, Father Alessandro, who is in charge of the monastery's library. All that Father Agostino has to find the author is a riddle, one that he cannot break. Father Alessandro begins to help him with the struggle to solve the riddle, and in turn, find the Soothsayer.

Life really becomes interesting when Father Agostino is finally allowed to see da Vinci's new and already controversial painting. At first, the Father is taken aback by its fluidity and beauty. Then the Father Prior gives him a key to the refectory that causes him to spend any spare moment staring at the mural, trying to uncover this secret message that it seems no one can read but the artist himself. Does it deal with the fact that there is no chalice resting on the table? Is it hidden in the positions of the hands, perhaps relating to a piece of music that Leonardo has composed? What about the positions of the bodies- are they part of the secret as well? And who did the painter use as his models for his work anyway?

Things fully explode when a pilgrim is murdered in the walls of another monastery in Milan . It appears that this person died in an attempt to look at a painting, a da Vinci. This work, called The Virgin of the Rocks seems innocent but then again, this is the second version of it. What secret was this person looking for that would be so valuable he would die for it? And who is the murderer? Now, Father Agostino is not only looking for the Soothsayer as the author of the letters but also as a potential murder suspect.

And it is all downhill from there. I think I found this novel to be even more entertaining than ‘The Da Vinci Code' and certainly came with much less controversy. It contains a more believable plot and it is always great when it is set in history. I think that just about anyone would love this book, for its art history and speculation, or just for its entertaining and well-woven plot. Javier Sierra has delivered with grace a novel that flows just like a scene painted by da Vinci.

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