If You Liked Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code... Try One of These Authors.

Angelology, by Danielle Trussoni (2010)

Having entered a convent at a young age, Sister Evangeline discovers a letter from famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller that reveals an ancient conflict between an angel society Evangeline is destined to join and the human descendants of the Nephilim, an ancient race of beings born of a union between fallen angels and human beings.

The Amber Room, by Steve Berry (2003)

When her father dies under suspicious circumstances, Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler finds everything she loves threatened by the rival quests of two art collectors who seek one of the world's greatest treasures, lost after the Second World War.

The Assassini, by Thomas Gifford (1990)

The murder of Sister Valentine, an activist nun, leads her brother, lawyer Ben Driskill, on a deadly quest for her killer, a search that leads to a secret order of assassins that the Catholic Church has deployed for centuries at times of grave threats.

Booked to Die, by John Dunning (1992)

Cliff Janeway is enrolled as a bounty hunter by a Denver detective agency to bring back from Seattle a woman who stole a rare book. Instead, he finds himself protecting the woman from people after the book. First in a series, other titles in the series include The Bookman's Wake, The Bookman's Promise, and The Bookwoman's Last Fling.

The Book of Q, by Jonathan Rabb (2001)

A modern-day priest uncovers a sixth-century conspiracy that threatens to re-awaken in the present, and his investigation carries him to Croatia where he will confront the consequences of an eight-year-old affair.

Codex by Lev Grossman

An investment banker is sent by his firm to organize a collection of rare books for a mysterious, important client and realizes that there may be a medieval codex hidden among the volumes that surprisingly parallels a computer game's addictive virtual reality world.

The Confessor, by Daniel Silva (2003)

In the wake of a Munich writer's assassination, Mossad agent Gabriel Allon and Vatican priest Pietro embark on dangerous journeys that reveal long-buried secrets affecting the fates of millions of people.

Daughter of God by Lewis Perdue

Evidence of a female messiah executed by the Church in the fourth century has been stolen from its safe hiding place in the Vatican, and now all hell is breaking lose in the modern world as a result.

Death in a Strange Country, by Donna Leon (1993)

Inspector Guido Brunetti, a police commissario in Venice, Italy, investigating the murder of an American soldier, comes up against the Mafia, the government, the U.S. Army, and toxic waste. Other titles in the series include Dressed for Death, Death and Judgement, Acqua Alta, and Through a Glass, Darkly.

The Eight, by Katherine Neville (1998)

Two parallel stories spin out in Neville's audacious debut: In the 20th century, a computer expert with a passion for chess, on her way to Algeria for a business trip, is invited to take a mysterious moonlighting assignment: recover the pieces of an old chess set missing for centuries. At the time of the French Revolution, a young novice discovers that her abbey is the hiding place of a chess set, once owned by the great Charlemagne, which allows those who play it to tap into incredible powers beyond the imagination. The long-awaited sequel, The Fire, was published in 2008.

The Eighth Day by John Case

Part-time private investigator Danny Cray is hired to discover who is behind a clever scheme to destroy the reputation of a notorious billionaire -- an assignment that takes him around the world and unexpectedly hurls him into a sinister world where nothing is what it seems.

Enigma, by Robert Harris (1995)

A fictional account of the desperate efforts to break the Nazi's Enigma code takes place in a British railway town, a struggle that becomes complicated by the pivotal disappearance of a beautiful cryptographer.

Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco (1989)

A wily group of editors devises a mock formula for tapping the mystical powers of the universe, only to set off a series of mysterious disappearances.

The Gemini Contenders, by Robert Ludlum (1976)

Andrew and Adrian Fontine, antagonistic twin sons of Vittorio Fontine-Cristi, search separately for a small Greek monastery vault and its priceless ancient documents, hidden high in the Italian Alps.

The Genesis Code, by John Case (1997)

In a suburb of Washington, D.C., Joe Lassiter learns that his only sister and her young son have been killed in a fire that destroyed their house and soon discovers that the fire is part of a much larger conspiracy that he must stop.

Ghost Walk, by Marianne MacDonald (1997)

When an old customer of her antiquarian book business is found murdered, Dido Hoare is compelled to investigate the matter and find the killer, but during her probe, she learns details about the customer's dark past that make her fear for her own safety. Other titles include Road Kill and Die Once.

Headlong, by Michael Frayn (1999)

When a frustrated philosopher uncovers what he believes is a lost painting by Bruegel in a boorish neighbor's basement, he embarks on a hilarious quest to separate the work from its owner.

In the Hand of Dante, by Nick Tosches (2002)

The discovery of an original manuscript of Dante's Inferno in the Vatican archives finds writer Nick Tosches heading for Rome to authenticate the find.

The Lost Army of Cambyses, by Paul Sussman (2002)

Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police investigates suspicions that three murders are related and teams up with victim's daughter Tara Mullray in a race for survival that takes them from the Nile to the back streets of Cairo in search of a lost tomb.

Mary, Called Magdalene, by Margaret George (2002)

Draws on the Bible and secular historical research to present a fictional portrait of Mary of Magdala as she becomes part of Jesus's disciple circle and comes into a realization of her faith.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

In 1327, Brother William of Baskerville is sent to investigate charges of heresy against Franciscan monks at a wealthy Italian abbey but finds his mission overshadowed by seven bizarre murders.

Possession: A Romance, by A.S. Byatt (1990)

A young academic couple's attempt to trace the relationship between two turbulent, romantic, and superstitious Victorian poets reveals uncanny parallels with their own lives and culminates in the exhumation of a poet's corpse.

The Prophetess by Barbara Wood

In December 1999, Catherine Alexander discovers six ancient papyrus scrolls that reveal a hidden history of the world and its religions, but a seventh scroll, containing unimaginable power, is missing and Catherine must dodge government agents, Vatican operatives, and more to locate it.

The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason (2004)

Endeavoring to decipher a five-hundred-year old text that weaves a mathematical labyrinth within a love story, researchers Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris of Princeton obtain a diary that may contain the key to the code, but when a fellow researcher is killed, they realize that the book contains a dangerous secret.

The School of Night by Alan Wall (2002)

A sinister novel of obsession follows Sean Tallow, who has two goals in his life -- to be just like his sophisticated friend Daniel Pagett and to expose the truth about the School of Night, an enigmatic group of Elizabethans who clustered around Sir Walter Raleigh -- as he desperately tries to solve the riddle surrounding this strange society, unexpectedly plunging himself into a dark world.

The Sixth Lamentation, by William Broderick (2003)

When a suspected Nazi war criminal demands sanctuary from his church, Father Anselm finds his subsequent investigation paralleled by a search by Lucy Aubret, whose grandmother was betrayed by the Nazi criminal when she secretly worked to rescue Jewish children.

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