Dan Burstein, David Shugarts, SECRETS OF THE WIDOW’S SON in WaPo

The Man Who’s Riding Dan Brown’s ‘Code’ Tales:

All that’s known about the still-unscheduled Brown book is that when it’s finally published — perhaps in late 2006 or 2007 — it will involve the Freemasons, will be set at least partly in Washington and will be called “The Solomon Key.” …

Burstein says he got hooked on “Da Vinci” in June 2003, three months after Brown’s religio-historical thriller was published. (Thirty-six million hardback copies are now in print worldwide, according to Brown’s publisher, Doubleday.) He shelled out hundreds of dollars for books related to Brown’s narrative, in which the Gnostic Gospels and Mary Magdalene figure heavily, and started thinking about a guidebook that could help readers separate fact from fiction.

He and a friend started a small company, Squibnocket Partners, to pull “Secrets of the Code” together. They made contact with Barnes & Noble, which signaled significant interest. They signed up more than 40 contributors (with Burstein serving as editor) and by May 2004 the anthology was a New York Times bestseller. Later came a guide to an earlier Brown book, “Angels and Demons.”

…
Ah, but those books exist! How can you do a guide to a book that isn’t written ?

One of Burstein’s team, reporter David Shugarts, supplied the answer by checking out a rumor that there was a code embedded in the dust jacket flaps of “The Da Vinci Code.” Sure enough, some letters on the flaps were in a slightly bolder face and spelled out “Is there no hope for the widow’s son?” Researching that phrase led Shugarts first to the history of the Mormon church and eventually — the details are too complex to get into here — to a predicted Washington/Freemason backdrop for Brown’s next book.

Brown later confirmed as much in a rare public appearance.

So if you’re truly Brown-obsessed — or if you’re just dying to read about the conjunction of Freemasonry, the Founding Fathers and the nation’s capital — “Secrets of the Widow’s Son,” which Burstein commissioned Shugarts to write, is there for you.

Related posts:

• David Shugarts, author of SECRETS OF THE WIDOW’S SON
• Secrets of the Widow’s Son by David Shugarts
• [The Solomon Key and Beyond: Dan Brown News] ‘Secrets’ unearths more ‘Da Vinci’ theories
• ‘Secrets’ unearths more ‘Da Vinci’ theories
• Bella Online reviews Secrets of the Widow’s Son