Rule of Four Author Profile, Take Two

Remember a few days back, when a few commentators noted that Dinitia Smith's NYT profile of Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason elided over a lot of details? Linton Weeks fills in the gaps for WaPo, explaining how the co-authors had changed agents (their first one retired) and how the editor who gave them crucial advice on improving the manuscript became the highest bidder in the auction after the rewrite.

One thing I don't get, though, is the crack that "The Rule of Four is not as ambitious as The Da Vinci Code." Not as ambitious? Does that mean they wimped out by not hinging their plot on rumors about Jesus, or that they didn't race as madly towards the lowest common denominator? The pair, meanwhile, say they were inspired in part by The Secret History, and now all sorts of things make sense.