Yes, and Foucault's pendulum is very literary research oriented (long expositions of guys surfing their zettelkasten), where Dan Brown's books are standard pop

Yes, and Foucault's pendulum is very literary research oriented (long expositions of guys surfing their zettelkasten), where Dan Brown's books are standard pop fiction action fare. Every 15 years or so, we get a new, more popularly approachable entry in the "Templars/Illuminati are real" mystery thriller genre. We're about due another one, but I'll bet I missed it because it's in the Young Adult Fiction section.