Books like The Da Vinci Code
What should you read after Dan Brown’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Dan Brown
- 2003
- Conspiracy thriller
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after The Da Vinci Code
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchAngels & Demons
Dan Brown
The first Langdon, and by most accounts the better constructed one: same symbologist, same Church, one night in Rome and a genuinely good final twist.
- A conspiracy inside the Church
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- An academic explaining as he runs
- Same prose weaknesses
Great matchThe Templar Legacy
Steve Berry
Berry does the Brown formula with better historical footwork: a Templar secret, a chase across Europe, chapters engineered to stop you sleeping.
- A secret society guarding one fact
- Short chapters ending on cliffhangers
- Real museums, churches and streets
- Series with recurring hero
Worth a look — with a warningThe Secret History
Donna Tartt
Also a murder rooted in ancient knowledge and a scholar in over his head, but Tartt is interested in the guilt rather than the chase.
- An academic explaining as he runs
- A secret society guarding one fact
- Literary pace, no puzzles
Great matchThe Rule of Four
Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason
Princeton students decoding a genuinely real Renaissance riddle-book. Brown's puzzle pleasure with actual scholarship behind it, and a slower fuse.
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- An academic explaining as he runs
- Much slower pace
Great matchThe Eight
Katherine Neville
Chess, Charlemagne, and a treasure hunt braided across two centuries. The maximalist ancestor of the code-thriller, published fifteen years before Langdon.
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- A secret society guarding one fact
- 600 pages, dense
Great matchThe Last Templar
Raymond Khoury
Horsemen raid a Vatican exhibition in Manhattan on page one and the book never really stops. Same religious secret, same engine, less art history.
- A conspiracy inside the Church
- Short chapters ending on cliffhangers
- A chase compressed into one night
- Formulaic in places
Best for the scholarly chaseThe Historian
Elizabeth Kostova
A trail of letters and archives leading across Europe toward something the Church would rather not discuss. Brown's structure, written properly.
- Real museums, churches and streets
- A secret society guarding one fact
- An academic explaining as he runs
- Slow burn over 700 pages
Great matchThe Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A mystery about a hidden book, a disfigured stranger, and a city's buried history. If you liked being led through Paris, this does Barcelona better.
- Real museums, churches and streets
- A secret society guarding one fact
- Literary, not a thriller
Worth a look — with a warningThe Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
The novel Brown is a simplified version of: monastery murders, a forbidden book, a friar who reasons it out. Much harder work, much greater reward.
- A conspiracy inside the Church
- An academic explaining as he runs
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- Long theological digressions
Great matchThe Lost Symbol
Dan Brown
Langdon in Washington, decoding Masonic symbols across a single night. The formula executed competently enough, though by this point it is visibly a formula rather than a story.
- An academic explaining as he runs
- A secret society guarding one fact
- A chase compressed into one night
- Weakest of the Langdons
Great matchThe Codex
Douglas Preston
Three brothers race for a hidden tomb across Central America, decoding their father's clues. Brown's treasure hunt, relocated to the jungle.
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- Short chapters ending on cliffhangers
- Adventure, not intellectual
Worth a look — with a warningThe Maze of Bones
Rick Riordan
The children's version of the same pleasure: historical clues, global chase, a secret family behind everything. Fine for a young reader, thin for you.
- Codes and puzzles to solve alongside
- Short chapters ending on cliffhangers
- Written for nine-year-olds
What should you read after The Da Vinci Code?
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Angels & Demons by Dan Brown — the first Langdon, and by most accounts the better constructed one: same symbologist, same Church, one night in Rome and a genuinely good final twist.
If what stayed with you was a secret society guarding one fact, read The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry instead: berry does the Brown formula with better historical footwork: a Templar secret, a chase across Europe, chapters engineered to stop you sleeping. The Secret History by Donna Tartt is the other strong option — also a murder rooted in ancient knowledge and a scholar in over his head, but Tartt is interested in the guilt rather than the chase.
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