ORIGIN by Dan Brown

I read this book for book club, and it did not change my opinion of Dan Brown.  The subject matter is as thought-provoking as ever, but the writing has not improved.  Still, you have to give the guy credit for tackling the origin of life and whether it can be scientifically explained.  Robert Langford is on the scene again, with the help of another beautiful woman, to find out what his friend Edmund Kirsch had discovered.  Kirsch’s highly anticipated announcement is cut short by the bullet of an assassin who is a member of an ultra-conservative religious sect.  Langford’s cohort is Ambra Vidal, engaged to the future king of Spain, but the two of them must wrestle with the question of who orchestrated Kirsch’s murder.  It could have been Ambra’s fiancé or the priest who has been the long-time adviser and confidant to the king.  Catholicism is an integral part of Spanish culture, and Kirsch’s discovery threatens to discredit the Adam and Eve story.  (Hasn’t Darwin already done that?)  For me, this was not really a page-turner and had no startling revelations or surprises.  I did enjoy the discussion of the difference between patterns--which exist in nature in snowflakes and tornadoes, among other things--and codes.  DNA is the one obvious code, and Langford ruminates on the question of whether its existence implies divine intervention.  Also, am I the only person who didn’t know there is an arrow in the negative space of the FedEx logo?