The plot begins with a murder, of course: with a Louvre curator shot by a Catholic fanatic but left with enough time as he bleeds to death to arrange his nude body in a provocative style, while writing coded messages partly in his own blood, partly with invisible ink.
One wonders, in retrospect, if he had time to leave all of those messages, strip off his clothes and paint his body with his own blood... why didn't he just call an ambulance?
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
"Why didn't he just call an ambulance?"
Guess he forgot his cell phone. Actually, I read the book, found it to be an all-nighter. I can see why the church would be upset. I recently read a book about the conflict between the female godess principle represented by Ashtarte, Ishtar, Isis, and the masculine God principle represented by Yahweh. Apparently until the Babylonian captivity of the Jews around 500 BC, both the male and female were acknowledged in Jewish worship. It was after the captivity that the masculine Yahweh became totally ascendent, particularly because the Babylonians were strong worshipers of the female. Thus by emphasizing the masculine the Jews maintained their separateness/superiority.
Unfortunately this tendancy has been emphasized even more extremely by Islam, especially the fanatical Wahabi form of it which is followed by Saudi Arabia and the Sunni. The Catholic church, with the impetus of Paul, who had little use for women, has maintained this tendancy in Christianity. I suspect that Dan Brown's argument is with the authoritarian anti-female aspect of the Catholic church. Other Christian groups such as the Quakers represent a very different form of Christian worship.
He didn't have a cell phone. :)