Product Description

1291 AD, Acre. As the city burns under the onslaught of the Sultan's men, the Falcon Temple sets sail, carrying a small band of knights and a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order's Grand Master. But the ship vanishes without a trace... Present day New York. At the Metropolitan Museum, four horsemen dressed as Knights Templar storm the gala opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and, in a brutal and bloody attack, steal an arcane medieval decoder. For FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin this is just the start of a deadly game of cat and mouse as they race across three continents in search of the ruthless killers - and a centuries-old mystery...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11025 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE
'fascinating... vivid and poignant'

Review
'All the makings of a blockbuster here, in the book charts and on the screen.' (SUNDAY SPORT )

'fascinating... vivid and poignant' (REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE )

'brilliant plotting... fast-paced fascinating... thought provoking, and the journey, both physical and emotional, undertaken by the main protagonists in discovering it is truly page-turning stuff. (CRIMESQUAD )

'a good fast read that will make an afternoon in front of the fire fly by' (DEADLY PLEASURES )

Synopsis
1291 AD, Acre. As the city burns under the onslaught of the Sultan's men, the Falcon Temple sets sail, carrying a small band of knights and a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order's Grand Master. But the ship vanishes without a trace...Present day New York. At the Metropolitan Museum, four horsemen dressed as Knights Templar storm the gala opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and, in a brutal and bloody attack, steal an arcane medieval decoder. For FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin this is just the start of a deadly game of cat and mouse as they race across three continents in search of the ruthless killers - and a centuries-old mystery...

Customer Reviews

Entertaining bit of no-brain thriller action
This is a great, exicting and fun thriller! I was drawn to it because of the crazy opening scene, where we see 4 men in full armour on horseback rob New York's Metropolitan Museum! They steal an arcane medeval artifact...but for what purpose? Why leave all the valuable art and jewels? Its up to the good old FBI to find out! Agent Sean and archaeologist Tess are on the case, chasing the artifact and its secret across the world! A thriller with the Knights templar, a hidden ship, codes and secret documents and yet another religious conspiracy! And of course, its obviously all true.....not really but i'm sure someone will take it as gospel. No pun intended, heh you will have to read it! Great! Don't expect anything highbrow, this does exactly what it says on the tin...

the market place is now so crowded with this stuff
Yes, it is well paced and interesting but this is what I describe as a 'beach book' one bought in the airport bookshop on the way to your vacation. I found it similar in 'feel' to The Da Vinci Code and for me it was better written although weak towards the end and the finale could have been better. That said I think that this would make a teriffic movie especially if the ending was re-written and the characters beefed up. As an aside I would mention that there is a lot of hype about the Knights Templar, Freemasons, Rosslyn Chapel etc. which feature in novels such as these (although not every subject is included in every novel) but a good corrective are the books by a Freemason - Anyway The Last Templar will probably never be made into a movie (pity) because the market place is now so crowded with this stuff. I would also recommend, if you missed reading TINO GEORGIOU'S masterpiece--THE FATES, go and read it.

Good start but poor ending
A fascinating start to the book, very fast paced whodunnit which was very enjoyable until probably the worst FBI Agent in history arrives! The very irritating Tess and Reilly seem to be the worst characters in the book. More on the Middle Ages characters would have made the book far better.

As for the ending......