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Summary
Summary
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was--and its true nature could change the modern world. Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts--and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind. It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who's far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she's not alone. Competing for the historic prize--and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses--is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world--and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.
Author Notes
Steve Berry was born in 1955. He is a graduate of Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law. He was a practicing attorney when he started writing in 1990. His first book, The Amber Room, was published in 2003. His other works include The Romanov Prophecy, The Third Secret, The Columbus Affair, The Patriot Threat and the Cotton Malone series. He also writes e-book original short stories including The Balkan Escape, The Devil's Gold, and The Admiral's Mark. He and his wife founded History Matters, a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding the preservation of our heritage. In 2015, The Patriot Threat made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Berry goes gnostic in this well-tooled Da Vinci Code-knockoff, his fourth novel (The Romanov Prophecy). Ex-U.S. Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is intrigued when he sees a purse snatcher fling himself from a Copenhagen tower to avoid capture, slitting his own throat on the way down for good measure. Further snooping introduces him to the medieval religious order of the Knights Templar and the fervid subculture searching for the Great Devise, an ancient Templar archive that supposedly disproves the Resurrection and demolishes traditional Christian dogma. The trail leads to a French village replete with arcane clues to the archive's whereabouts, and to an oddball cast of scholar-sleuths, including Cassiopeia Vitt, a rich Muslim woman whose special-ops chops rival Malone's. Malone and company puzzle over the usual Code-inspired anagrams, dead language inscriptions and art symbolism, debate inconsistencies in the Gospels and regale each other with Templar lore, periodically interrupting their colloquia for running gun battles with latter-day Templar Master Raymond de Roquefort and his pistol-packing monks. The novel's overcomplicated conspiracies and esoteric brainteasers can get tedious, and the various religious motivations make little sense. (Thankfully, the author soft-pedals the genre's anti-Catholicism.) But lively characters and action set pieces make this a more readable, if no more plausible, version of the typical gnostic occult thriller. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Good knights and bad knights chase each other around southwestern France in yet another tale of Sensational Untold Christian Revelation. Berry's The Third Secret (2005) dished up a papal suicide and some direct transmissions from the Virgin Mary at Fatima in 1917. Further papal nastiness figures in this take on the Knights Templar, a now-vanished but once vastly rich and dangerously powerful order that went from a gang of nine protectors of medieval pilgrims to one having near control of Western Europe. Their downfall came when craven Pope Clement V bowed to the will of his owner, France's King Henri IV, whose eye was on the great pile of Templar loot. With a nod from the pope to leaders of the Inquisition, the knights were disinherited, dismissed and, in some cases, flambéed. But did they really vanish? Their loot never made it into the royal coffers. Could they in this day and age be holed up in the shadow of the Pyrenees, disguised as simple 20th-century monks? And could their billions of euros in gold, jewelry and objets religieux be far away? Danish billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, among others, ponders this question. His late friend Lars Nelle got many readers to consider the possibilities when he published scholarly novels about the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château, a burg in the Languedoc with its share of secrets. Now Nelle's estranged widow Stephanie, a Department of Justice attorney, has received tantalizing information that brings her to Copenhagen, home of her dashing former employee, bookseller Cotton Malone. Before the two erstwhile associates have even said hello, a Knight Templar snatches Stephanie's backpack and slits his own throat. This is just the first of many encounters between the good Americans and the evil Templar Raymond de Roquefort, all of which lead to stunning secrets about the central Christian mystery. A long, tortuous journey to an unsurprising, though thoughtful, end. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The Knights Templar, a small monastic military order formed in the early 1100s to protect travelers to the Holy Land, eventually grew and became wealthy beyond imagination. In 1307, the French king, feeling jealous and greedy, killed off the Templars, and by 1311, the last master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake. The whereabouts of the Templars' treasure--and their secrets--have been the subject of legend ever since. Now, a new thriller trieas to follow in the steps of The Da Vinci Code0 . There's a secret about early Christianity at the core of Berry's Templar Legacy0 , but he dispenses the clues too slowly. The cat-and-mouse game between Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department agent, and a modern-day order of Knights Templar is weighed down with too much confusing backstory about the Templars' connection to Rennes-le-Chateau and the mystery that surrounds it. (The real-life town plays a part in The Da Vinci Code 0 as well.) Like Dan Brown, Berry draws on the seminal nonfiction work Holy Blood, Holy Grail 0 for many of his themes. After nearly grinding to a halt through all the premise building, the novel finally gathers steam in the last 100 pages or so, concluding with a revelation that seems refreshingly clear after the many convoluted twists that precede it. Until the next Dan Brown opus is released, this should hold devotees. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Berry's third thriller (after The Amber Room and The Third Secret) is not to be missed. The first in a planned series of four books featuring Cotton Malone, a former U.S. Justice Department agent turned Copenhagen bookseller, this work takes on the legend of the Knights Templar, a rich and powerful order of knights supposedly stamped out in the early 14th century-but not before hiding a legendary cache of wealth. Cotton joins forces with former boss Stephanie Nelle to investigate the recent surprise appearance of a journal belonging to her deceased husband, a leading researcher of the treasure of the Knights Templar. Cotton and Stephanie quickly discover that the Knights Templar is far from extinct and will do just about anything to prevent them from discovering its secrets. Anagrams and complicated symbology abound, and comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Berry distinguishes himself with a complex, well-written, and extremely readable story. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Andrea Y. Griffith, Loma Linda Univ. Libs., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.