I was given “La Hermandad de la Sabana Santa”, by Julia Navarro, last Christmas as a present. I had seen it in bookshops for years and even though I liked the synopsis at the back I never bought it because I had lots of books in the to-be-read list. But now that I had it, I took it with pleasure to have an easy read in between more demanding ones (for it is in Spanish among other reasons).
The plot is around some detectives and art experts who are investigating accidents around the Sacred Shroud in Turin, and the find themselves following the thread of the Knights Templar… is it enough? Doesn’t it ring a bell? I found this novel very similar to “The Da Vinci Code”. I checked it, and Dan Brown’s book dates from 2003, while the one from Navarro is from 2004.
Honestly I found this book much simpler than “The Da Vinci Code”: its descriptions, dialogues, the thoughts of the characters… On the positive side: how the plot advances in several parallel timelines in the 1st, 13th and 21st centuries and how they all merge in the last frenzied 200 pages.
If you haven’t yet read “The Da Vinci Code”, I would read it first rather than “La Hermandad de la Sabana Santa”, however if you have read the former and you liked the genre go for the latter as well, and finally, if you read the former and had enough of it… better find another book.
The Blog by Javier 