Donnie, I am just so pleased to hear someone else say this.
The story is an excellent one, but should have been 10 times better written. I think it was written purely to be bought by a big film studio. DAn Brown has taken a well known storyline and padded it with one dimensional people. I think this book should have been MUCH MUCH better.
Did you also think that some of the clues were weak?
overall, I would say that I was disappointed, but was kept moving through the book by the plot line, and the vain hope that something really fab. would be revealed (which of course is always a silly thing to hold onto!).