Dense plot turns pile on thick, however; after 300 pages, each new twist earns an eye roll more than renewed interest. Though the novel satisfies every hanging thread, the ending gets a little anticlimactic. By the novel’s mid-point, enough clues have surfaced to make guessing the resolution an easy game.
Much like Da Vinci, the big reveal here relies on carefully ignored portions of biblical history and scholarship to sell the significance of the discovery. Legacy leans more toward Gnostic ideas. The four New Testament Gospels receive a critical pounding, yet Berry leaves no room for scholarship concerning the remaining portions of the canon to object (or even support, for that matter). For all the novel’s historical winks and nods at authenticity, the big secret suffers from underwhelming research.
Casual readers may find the trip through history a little more complicated than they’d like, and slower portions make it hard to keep going. The journey, better than Da Vinci, still lacks the heart to make it stick with you once your fingers turn that last page.
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