Pen name as free publicity?

Although I'm still planning on reading The Traveler, I admit to a certain cynicism about the author and his desire for privacy.  This clinched it for me:

From Reuters.com:

Twelve Hawks is a pseudonym and all that is known about the author of "The Traveler" -- published this month amid Hollywood-style hype that landed it on The New York Times bestseller list -- is that he "lives off the grid," meaning he has no mobile phone, credit card or other means of being traced.

"John Twelve Hawks is a mystery, even I don't know who he is," said his editor Jason Kaufman, best known as the editor of Dan Brown's blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code."