The Secret Supper (Paperback)

I think most readers will be amazed to learn that they have never truly looked at this most familiar work of art. Certainly, as Sierra shows us, there are strange qualities if not outright anomalies in the painting. Why are there no halos above Christ and his disciples? Why do you see no representation of the Eucharistic bread or the Holy Grail? Why are two of the disciples looking the other way, seemingly ignoring Jesus' fateful revelation that He is to be betrayed by someone at that very table? And why, for goodness' sake, is Peter clutching a knife behind his back? Sierra soon leads us to additional oddities: the disciples bear the images of heretics, Judas Thaddeus is represented with Leonardo's own face, Simon's face is modeled on the Greek philosopher Plato, a knot on the tablecloth is indicative of Mary Magdalene. These are just a small sample of the issues Sierra raises about The Last Supper over the course of his incredible novel. And, just so you know, he does have answers awaiting you at the end of the novel, including the secret message and its significance as discovered by the author. You may or may not believe Sierra's conclusions about the painting and Leonardo himself, but, my goodness, it's more than worth your time and consideration. True or not, this certainly makes for one humdinger of a story, one that will completely captivate those with any interest in history, a good puzzle, and/or the history of Christianity (and, specifically, the Roman Catholic Church).

Set in 1497, during the final weeks of Leonardo's work on The Last Supper, The Secret Supper mixes historical characters with those of the author's own creation to reveal the mystery of the painting. The narrator is the fictional Friar Agostino Leyre, a Dominican Inquisitor sent to Milan for two purposes: to identify the anonymous insider who has been writing letters to Rome claiming that Leonardo's The Last Supper contains a secret message that brands him a heretic, and to discover what that hidden message actually is. The anonymous source, who calls himself the Soothsayer, has provided a seven-line puzzle that will identify him, and this is basically all that Leyre has to go on initially. During his stay at Santa Maria delle Grazie, he comes into contact with a variety of men, both inside and outside the Church, eventually including Leonardo himself, who provide him with tantalizing new clues about both subjects of his investigation. He also, of course, has the actual painting to study in its almost-completed state. Leyre's investigation eventually takes him places he would never have dreamed - but I won't go so far as to reveal any of those details. Suffice it to say that the sources of information Sierra draws upon in putting all of his historical pieces together are incredibly broad and exceedingly impressive (and, I should note, all of the ancient books referred to in the novel did actually exist). It makes for uncommonly powerful suspense as you join Friar Leyre in pursuit of the secret mystery at the heart of everything - Sierra calls this an "investigative novel," and so it truly is.

The Secret Supper is a bit more challenging than your typical novel. Those unfamiliar with the history of the Catholic Church may face a bit of a learning curve, as many of the key themes center on the symbolic rites and history of the Roman Catholic Church, and I'm sure non-Catholics will find some of the heretical notions addressed here less significant than those of the Catholic faith. In addition, the reader will doubtless encounter a number of historical figures they are completely unfamiliar with - but the author has provided a most helpful description of each of them at the back of the book. The one recommendation I do have for the reader is to have a reproduction of Leonardo's The Last Supper at your disposal, as you will surely want to refer to the complete painting on numerous occasions.