MaryKate D.’s Reviews > The Da Vinci Code > Status Update

WS: In one chapter, the police are trying to find Sophie and Langdon because they are guilty for killing Saunière’s. At the end of the chapter, they use a tracking device that is in the truck they were driving, so they could find them. The author ended the chapter by saying that the transponder in the truck “blinked to life.” I think this adds some suspense and makes the reader want to keep flipping the pages.

P: I think André Vernet, the president of the bank that contained a secret box that Sophie and Langdon found, is actually tricking Sophie and Langdon. He told them he would help them escape the city because the police were after them, but instead I think he is trying to get far away enough from everybody else so that he can steal the secret box and use it to become famous or to get some sort of award for finding it.

Prediction: When Sophie and Langdon were at the bank of Zurich to try to find the box with the hidden object inside that Saunière told them about through secret messages, the president of the bank said he knew Saunière and was a good friend of his. I think the president of the bank, André Vernet, is also part of the secret organization that Saunière took part in and that’s how he knows him.

“The sum is exorbitant.” In this context, exorbitant means the quality of being convenient and practical despite possibly being improper or immoral.

Vocab: “Vatican cars were now less ostentatious and almost always unmarked.” In this context, ostentatious means characterized by vulgar or pretentious display.

WS: Sophie keeps mentioning that many years ago, she saw her now-mysteriously murdered grandpa doing something unforgivable. In this chapter, she mentions it again and gives more detail, saying she found her grandpa one night in his basement with a group of people chanting in reverence to something, but we don’t know what yet. I think the author isn’t revealing the whole truth yet in order to keep the reader engaged.

Vocab: “Langdon’s students were always amused to learn that Da Vinci eventually mollified the confraternity by painting them a second, “watered down” version of Madonna of the Rocks in which everyone was arranged in a more orthodox manner.” In this context, mollified means appeased or calmed down and confraternity means a brotherhood, especially with a charitable or religious purpose.