The Codex by Douglas Preston Book Daily 4/6/13
I assume this sort of escapist entertainment must be popular, or who would publish it? The set up at the beginning of the novel is very artificial, and all readers must know it. It has nothing to do with reality from sentence one when the point-of-view character, Tom Broadbent, shows up outside his rich father’s house in Santa Fe and meets his other two adult brothers. They’ve been summoned there by their eccentric paterfamilias for an unknown reason. They get spooked out waiting and break in only to discover that his famous art collections are gone. They think he’s been robbed, but really they find out he’s disappeared. They engage in a treasure hunt around the globe to who knows what purpose. Apparently there’s even a Mayan codex involved, so the novel can shamelessly exploit the popular obsession with Mayan antiquities, calendars, etc., etc., and so forth.
This novel has “fad” written all over it. It’s just like Dan Brown and his thrillers full of “symbols”. It’s a “symbolist movement” with a small s. End of subject. End of review. If it’s to your taste fine. So be it. Peace.
by Linda Cargill, the author of The Key to Lawrence.