The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

I think the one big mistake an unsuspecting reader of The Rule of Four by first-time author tag-team Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason can make is that he or she may compare it to the blisteringly fast-paced, action-packed, cliffhanger-at-every-chapter-esque The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

If I may offer some advice: just don't. Don't, even if you had to sell your mother's teak furniture, compare the two books. Just don't. Unless of course, comparing apples and oranges is indeed your speciality but if that is indeed so, I will have to show you the door, sir, and please do not come by again, thank you very much.

The Rule of Four is about four college boys about to graduate from Princeton. It is not, however hard it is to believe so, about a symbologist who gallivants around Paris and London hoping to find the Holy Grail. In fact, sometimes it's about an ancient Renaissance text and sometimes it's about one of the boys' confused love life. It does not at all feature hot French babes and this may disappoint some of you.

How exciting can you make a book that's about another book, albeit a bit more more older, mouldy and mustier book? Answer: not very. But, it still is a very, very, interesting read as long as you don't fall asleep waiting to turn the pages and in the end, if that's what floats your boat, then I guess this is something one should not afford to miss.

I loved it. I would have loved it more if the publishers didn't tout it as the next Da Vinci Code, which it is not. At all.