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A lucky thing happened to Steve Berry on his way to becoming a best-selling author. He ran into what he calls "the thousand-pound gorilla," known to the rest of us as The Da Vinci Code.
That "gorilla," Berry says, has helped popularize the whole religious/historical thriller genre and is now helping other authors achieve success.
"Dan Brown gave guys like me a chance," says Berry, whose fourth book, The Templar Legacy (Ballantine, $24.95), features a search for hidden wealth and secrets surrounding the Knights Templar, a monastic military order formed in the 12th century. His book premiered at No. 10 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list this month.
"We were writing stories like this," Berry says, "but editors weren't necessarily interested. They became interested after the success of The Da Vinci Code."
And this year, more than ever, it's especially true. There are 12 million copies of Brown's 2003 best-selling The Da Vinci Code in print in North America, 40 million worldwide. Rabid Brown fans have had three years to get their fill of Brown's back list: Deception Point, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress. Now they're frothing at the mouth for the release of the Code movie in May. They also, Berry says, are looking for more well-written books that incorporate history, religion, secrets, conspiracy and international settings.
That's in part why The Third Secret, Berry's 2005 hardcover, just out in paperback, rose as high as No. 7 on USA TODAY's list with 807,500 copies in print. The Third Secret hardcover never rose higher than No. 80 on the list last year.
"Timing isn't everything, it's absolutely everything." says Berry, 50, who published his first historical thriller, The Amber Room, in 2003. "It's true in politics and life and in bookselling."
That reinvigorated genre has also bumped Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar (Dutton, $24.95), already a best seller in Great Britain, as high as No. 15 on USA TODAY's list this month and has publishers of upcoming religious thrillers optimistically poised for success.
And like Berry's publisher -- who has so far printed 318,000 copies of The Templar Legacy (print run for his first novel was 20,000) -- they're thinking big.
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, a hunt for a holy grail in medieval and modern-day France, went on sale last week. So far: 118,000 in print. Publishers Weekly says it will "tantalize" Da Vinci Code devotees.
At Barnes & Noble stores across the country, these books are displayed with The Da Vinci Code. "These books are feeding that same reader who has been starved for more books like The Da Vinci Code," says Sessalee Hensley, a fiction buyer for the chain. The Last Templar, The Templar Legacy and The Da Vinci Code are among the stores' top 10 best sellers. Last week, Labyrinth was No. 11.
Coming up:
*The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra (Atria), a search for hidden meanings in The Last Supper, first printing 370,000; out Tuesday.
*The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi, a quest for the "True Cross" on which Jesus was crucified; first printing, 100,000, out April 4.
But can they all succeed in what's becoming a competitive market? "Predictions are tough," says George Scott of Chapter 11 bookstore in Sandy Springs, Ga. "Dan Brown did open some doors," Scott says, but the success of upcoming books "will be determined by how well the story is told and how much work the authors have done in looking into the facts, because it's not historical suspense if it's not historical."
Hensley is more optimistic. "I wouldn't bet against any of these books. So far they're working like a charm."
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