The Wall Street Journal is the latest media outlet to wonder whatever happened to The Solomon Key, the Da Vinci Code sequel Dan Brown was supposed to have delivered ages ago. (See, for example, this item from May 2007 or this one from September 2005.) This time, however, there's a twist: The marketplace needs Brown now that J.K. Rowling has moved on.

"The whole industry is impatient," writes Jeffrey Trachtenberg. "Book sales are generally sluggish, and one explosive, high-profile title can jump-start sales across the board as customers pour into the stores and walk out with a bagful of titles."

Actually, the jury's still out on that "halo effect" theory, so I wouldn't go counting on Dan Brown to save booksellers just yet, especially since everybody's still chewing their fingernails trying to figure out if he'll be another Rowling or another Charles Frazier. As for the book, Doubleday promises "Dan Brown has a very specific release date... and when the book is published, his readers will see why." Trachtenberg sifts through some of the key dates in Freemason history; me, I'm hoping some enterprising conspiracy theorist comes up with a good argument that the whole thing, from manuscript to marketing, is one giant occult plot to deliver us all into evil. Because you know somebody will.