Is it time for product placement in fiction?

A month after SOMETHING MISSING hit the store shelves, I began receiving the occasional but persistent email from readers asking and sometimes accusing me of having made product placement deals in the writing of my book.  It would seem that my frequent use of specific brand names in the book had struck a nerve and caused them to wonder why an author would choose to be so specific. 

Clearly, they had not yet read Stieg Larsson.

I answered those emails with the assurance that my attention...