The Da Vinci Code code: what's the formula for a bestselling book?

Sales figures for the most popular modern authors round up familiar suspects from Dan Brown to JK Rowling. Taken together, they hint at surprising sales secrets

Steve Berry could be forgiven for asking himself every day what it takes to make a book a global bestseller. Back in 2003, the former lawyer published a novel that placed well-known myths in a conspiracy web to create a page-turning thriller.

Sound familiar? It should, except you’re thinking of Dan Brown and his flagellating priests in the multimillion seller The Da Vinci Code – not Berry’s tale of Nazis hunting Russian treasure in the barely known The Amber Room.

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