'"Da Vinci Code" author's new book

There was nothing encrypted about this message. Director Ron Howard may or may not have intended to let it slip, but he said it quite clearly: "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown has finished his third book featuring Da Vinci code protagonist Robert Langdon.

Howard was speaking to television show Entertainment Weekly from the Geneva set of the movie version of "Angels and Demons," the second Brown book to be turned into a film (after, of course, "The Da Vinci Code.")

Brown's new book is listed on Amazon.com as "The Solomon Key" and had originally been scheduled for publication in 2006. On his own website, Brown says that in the new book Langdon becomes "embroiled in a mystery on US soil" and that the novel "explores the hidden history of our nation's capital."

Some Brown fans have speculated that the novel will focus on the Freemasons.

Brown's publisher, Doubleday, have not yet confirmed that Brown has actually finished the book. On his website, Brown says only that, "timing is everything."