A writer named Lewis Perdue wrote a novel in 1983 entitled The Da Vinci Legacy, in which a hero and heroine embark on a quest to solve a mystery, written in blood on the body of a dead man who has left behind a golden key. (scanning news article) ... painting ... sacred feminine ... Catholic Church rocked to its very foundations ... see here! This is sounding darned familiar. (There's more, but head here to see a lengthy list of similarities.) Anyway, Mr. Perdue was miffed to begin with - and said as much, publicly - but it was probably nothing compared to the aftermath of being hit with a lawsuit by Dan Brown's legal team. (For? Complaining?) Perdue says he's more than willing to counter sue and get to court.

As if that wasn't juicy enough: Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two of three authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail are suing Random House, claiming that Brown lifted the entire architecture of The Code from their 1983 non-fiction work. My favorite quote:

"We are being lumped in with Dan Brown's work of fiction and that degrades the historical implication of our material," Baigent said. "It makes our work far easier to dismiss as a farrago of nonsense."

Nice to see someone else call That Book fiction.