Madam, - Your correspondents' response (Nov 3rd) to Breda O'Brien's critique of The Da Vinci Code ably demonstrate the pernicious nature of the book.
All missives were to a lesser or greater degree anti-Catholic (and anti-Christian) in tone.
Presumably, The Da Vinci Code served to reinforce or even trigger these prejudices.
Your correspondents are right, however, to emphasise the book as fiction.
Unfortunately, the book itself is not presented as wholly fictitious.
While the personal and plot elements of the book are obviously fantasy, the "historical" elements concerning the origins of Christianity and the sinister conspiracies of the Roman Catholic Church are put forward as factual or at least as plausible hypotheses.
They are neither and stem from the 1980s pseudo-historical work, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. This book is based on a bogus research method known as "synthesis" and on documents forged by a convicted fraudster, the late Pierre Plantard.
Such revelations were made as early as 1996 in a BBC documentary.
Finally, I was recently dismayed to see The Da Vinci Code displayed in the non-fiction section of a reputable and mainstream New York bookstore. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL HENRY, Nutgrove Park, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.