The Sion Revelation

November 28, 2005
The high tide of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code
has lifted many boats, and one of them is the research of Picknett and Prince, self-styled writers on "the paranormal, the occult, and historical mysteries." Authors of The Templar Revelation
, a book that helped inspire Brown's novel of hidden descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, Picknett and Prince return to these enticing themes of secrets, treasures, heresy and backroom power brokering with a closer look at the Priory of Sion. In this book, they argue that the Priory is a hoax, but one that is carefully designed in the manner of misinformation leaked by intelligence agencies to achieve specific goals. Behind the hoax, they say, is a network of European esoteric societies driven by the principle of "synarchy" and influencing the coalescence of the European Union, perhaps at the expense of democracy. Like their many other books, this one is cluttered with historical minutiae and sources of varying credibility. Skeptics will shake their heads over this next conspiracy theory, but for Da Vinci Code
fans hungry for additional digging behind the fiction, this will be a dense but satisfying read.

January 1, 2006
The authors' previous book, " The Templar Revelation" (1998)" ," a primary source for " The Da Vinci Code," looked at the symbolism in Da Vinci's art as well as exploring the notion that a secret group, the Priory of Sion, was charged with guarding the secret of Jesus' bloodline. Since then, most researchers have debunked the Priory. Picknett and Prince now argue that the Priory is neither the centuries-old society Brown posited nor a complete hoax but a real group that wants to bring about a United States of Europe. To get to their explanation of that concept (a notion that will be of most interest to Europeans), readers must wade through lots of convoluted logic. So, why bother? Well, for the very asset the authors tout--their connection to " The Da Vinci Code" . Thanks to Brown's novel, there is great interest in the topics covered here, everything from bloodlines to Merovingian kings to Gnostic gospels. That's enough to spark interest in this wildly speculative book. When the authors write that a presumed assassination of Princess Diana is outside their scope, one can only sigh in relief. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)