The big question for many: When will Dan Brown’s next book, following his wildly successful The DaVinci Code (2003), be published? Jeffrey Trachtenberg, writing in the Wall Street Journal today, says it’s a mystery:
“[T]he nation’s biggest retailers can barely restrain themselves. ‘We’re constantly asking,’ says Bob Wietrak, vice president of merchandising at Barnes & Noble Inc.
“So where is the new novel? It’s a mystery worthy of the deepest secrets of the Knights Templar. Mr. Brown, holed up in New Hampshire, isn’t saying. His agent, Heide Lange, isn’t, either.”
In 2004, the target date for the new book was 2005. Now, the publisher — Bertelsmann’s Doubleday imprint — “is hinting that a manuscript is close.” Since the novel, tentatively titled The Solomon Key, is “purported to be about freemasonry and the Founding Fathers,” guesses for a release date include July 4, Sept. 18 (cornerstone laid at US Capitol, with Pres. Washington leading a Masonic parade, in 1793), and Oct. 13 (White House cornerstone laid during Masonic celebration in 1792).