Graham A. Thomas - The Dan Brown Enigma: The Biography of the Worlds Greatest Thriller Writer

To my family and friends and especially my colleague Craig Cabell for giving me the support to write this book

by Craig Cabell

T hrillers are part of the modern psyche. The genre is a relatively new one dating back to 1915 with the publication of John Buchans The Thirty-Nine Steps. The story has all the essential elements of a modern thriller: an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary situation full of tension, danger and intrigue. The hero overcomes physical danger, fear and many other obstacles in his path as he races to complete his quest and unravel the mystery that surrounds him.

Dan Browns books have these same elements, which is what drew me into his stories. My thriller hero has always been Alistair MacLean, who wrote such masterpieces as Night Without End, Fear is the Key and When Eight Bells Toll. When I first came to Brown I didnt want to read him, but his blend of fact and fiction in a modern style at rocket pace caught my attention.

What intrigued me was his ability to blur the boundaries so well that the reader ends up believing everything on the page. It is how he takes myths that are buried deep in our collective subconscious and explodes it onto his pages that I find so interesting.

Everyone was going crazy about The Da Vinci Code so I steadfastly refused to pick up the book. But one day I did and never looked back. The more I started researching this book, the more involved I became in Brown and his characters, plots and ideas.

Whether the information Brown uses in his books is correct or not is not as important as the mans story. The facts he uses can be debated time and time again and they have been. There are dozens of books claiming to decode the mysteries in Browns books. Are these mysteries and strange facts true? Who knows? But thats not the point. Brown is a master storyteller who has managed to tap into our collective psyche, draw us in and blend it all together with staggering effect.

I wanted to write this book to get to grips with the effect that his books have had on organisations like the Catholic Church and the Freemasons. That effect has been profound. The Church has gone to great lengths to refute everything that Brown claimed was a fact in The Da Vinci Code. Why did they do this?

It is the writers choice to wind fact into his fiction and in some cases to dress up fiction as fact to push the story forwards. If Brown hadnt put a Fact page at the very beginning of The Da Vinci Code, its likely there would have been no outcry, no debate, as there has been since its publication.

The Dan Brown Enigma tries to unlock Browns methods of creating his mysteries, how he builds intricate puzzles while weaving in ancient texts, myths and legends into the stories. In a way he reminds me of Number Six from the cult Sixties TV series The Prisoner. We never really know who he is but we are hooked by his quest to escape the village and above all to find out who is really behind it.

Browns quest to find information and research that forms the basis of his novels is just as addictive. How does he do it? Why does he do it? Who is he?

Read on and enjoy the ride.

We want information.

You wont get it.

By hook or by crook, we will.

Graham A. Thomas
Warminster, March 2011

I t was a chilly, dry morning in 2009 that I found myself at Waterstones the booksellers in Londons Piccadilly to attend the official UK launch of Dan Browns The Lost Symbol.

Although the great man wasnt there, there was still a strong media presence as devoted fans queued to get their hands on one of only 150 signed, book-plated copies of the first edition UK hardback. Each special copy had a colour flaming key pictorial plate with bold black signature gold dust to the true fan and restricted to one copy per person.

I spoke to The Times and did some radio sound bites, answering such questions as: why is Dan Brown so popular? What sort of person reads Dan Brown? Do you think the new novel will live up to the notoriety of The Da Vinci Code?

I answered the questions while the fans looked on expectantly. Some smiled; others nodded their heads in staunch seriousness. At least they agreed with me, but the thing I learned from this experience was that Brown fans took his work very seriously. They believed in the threat of a Digital Fortress code, they believed in the Holy Blood line, they believed in ancient societies enduring from the Dark Ages to the present day.

Did I?

There is a difference between what one wishes for and what one suspects is true. And thats where for me and many Brown fans Dan Brown exists. He is a storyteller of great power and works on the minds of enquiring people with his fervent imagination. When all is said and done, Dan Brown writes stories. There may be some hard facts there but there will also be some supposition, so one doesnt really know what is the fact and what is the fiction. The resulting faction is not a new concept. The creator of such work in modern times is Frederick Forsyth, with such key books as The Day of the Jackal and The Fourth Protocol.

When I left Piccadilly still before most commuters breakfasts I glanced at the queue of people eager to purchase their special copy of Dan Browns latest novel. For them, the latest book didnt have to be The Da Vinci Code. It did, however, have to have Robert Langdon in it, and thats where Dan Brown will endure: through his most popular character. He had waited long enough for the hype of The Da Vinci Code to calm down before releasing the next Langdon book. The book wouldnt be as controversial, but then Brown didnt set out to make The Da Vinci Code controversial in the first place. The media did that. He simply told his intricate chase novel and thrilled his audience.

With The Lost Symbol it was the Freemasons who were now under scrutiny, not the Catholic Church; but unlike the Catholic Church, the Masons didnt respond negatively to the book, so there was no media circus and over-analysis of the text.

In short, Brown had created a new type of faction, which initially shocked certain people but as Tony Robinson found with his excellent programmes about The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, theres little to get uptight about just enjoy the story!

This book continues to break down the mystery surrounding Dan Brown and his works. It outlines the writers life and works and becomes an essential companion to the half-dozen books by the American author. It has not been released during the hype of The Da Vinci Code nor on the back of the The Lost Symbol. It sits in a space where we can soberly analyse the life and work of one of the worlds most successful writers, and I for one applaud its companionship.

Craig Cabell

London, March 2010

F ailure was not an option. For the longest time he stared at the blank screen in front of him; around him lay the books and papers he was using for his research. He and his wife had been through them all. Now was the moment of truth: the time to start writing.

Hed written three books so far, all well received but flops at the booksellers. Yet in his heart and his soul he knew they were good. This was what he was meant to do, wasnt it? Hed even had his eureka moment which had showed him writing was his true calling. But they hadnt sold. His music career in L.A. hadnt worked out either, so now his fourth novel just had to work. The pressure was on. If this book didnt sell then hed be back teaching again. He knew he couldnt face that.