`Da Vinci Code' mania finally chipping, flecking

It couldn't last forever, right? Simmered by three years of lawsuits, religious debates and conspiracy theories, brought to a boil in May by the Hollywood movie, the craze for all things Da Vinci Code is finally fading, publishers and booksellers agree. ``I would definitely say it's slowing down,'' Barnes & Noble fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley says. ``Once everybody got past the movie, the whole thing peaked.'' ``The spring definitely was the hottest time for this kind of book,'' says editor Mark Tavani of Ballantine Books, which released Steve Berry's The Templar Legacy, one of many Da Vinci-like novels to make best-seller lists earlier this year. ``It seems now that the wave has reached its end.'' [More]