What does Kryptos have to do with the bestseller The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown?
Dan Brown is a big fan of cryptology, and has long been intrigued by Kryptos. When he published his book, he hid some puzzles within the artwork of the bookjacket. Two of those puzzles refer to Kryptos. You can learn more about him, the book, and the puzzles by going to http://www.danbrown.com and clicking on “Secrets”. For example, if you hold the backcover of the original U.S. version of the book up to a mirror and look very closely at the part near the Crais quote, you can faintly see the coordinates 37 57′ 6.5″ N 77 8′ 44″ W on one side (it’s light red on dark red, so is hard to see). These are a clue to the coordinates in the deciphered text of part 2 of Kryptos, which are 38 57′ 6.5″ N 77 8′ 44″ W. We don’t know why the book says 37 and Kryptos says 38, although when Dan Brown was asked, he replied, “This discrepancy is intentional.” Another puzzle is on the backcover in the artwork of the brown “tear”. In very faint script, upside-down, it is possible to make out the words “only
