The Nostradamus Prophecies Book

Saw this displayed in the library as I was looking for new books and decided to pick this up. I'll admit that I enjoyed The Da Vinci code, and from the jacket, you would think this would be at least somewhat similar. Unfortunately, it's not even in the same league (and that's saying something). First off, I couldn't stand the writing; it read like a nonfiction writer trying to write fiction (which is the case). Also, the characters were very flat, and I could find nothing clever, witty, or exciting about them or the novel; I didn't care about any of them. If anything, the antagonist was more humanized than the three protagonists. This was primarily a story about gypsies and their culture (which I guess is interesting and would be good if I had wanted a book on that), and then it's like, "Whoops, forgot that I title this 'The Nostradamus Prophecies' so I better write that in." Apparently this is the first novel of a trilogy, but I don't know how or why; actually, I guess I know why, but to me it's stupid, only because I didn't sign up for what the novel actually was. If it was by design, then this is false advertising; if it's just the way things worked out, then this is a poorly executed concept. I was ready to stop reading almost as soon as I started, but I kept going because I thought it was going to come together soon; unfortunately, I ended up blowing through it just to get it over with.