The Templar Legacy

by: Ballantine

Published by: Steve Berry

Reviewed by Jeff Foster

If you loved the Da Vinci Code, this is a book for you.

Through the darkness of Medieval Europe comes Steve Berry's latest historical fiction, The Templar Legacy. As the title states, the story revolves around the long-lost treasure of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, after the Purge of 1307 and the decimation of the Templar Order by Phillip the IV of France.

As a student of history, I was dubious about yet another story concerning the topic. This story however, departed from the norm. It is set in modern Europe, and brings to light and organizes so many theories that I found immediately that I had hitched myself to a thrill ride of biblical proportions. Pun intended.

The characters are rich and you find yourself in the Peugeot with them as they are chased through mountain passes and the French countryside. The main protagonist, Cotton Malone, a former special agent for the US Justice Dept. is one of those characters a reader will immediately want to know more about.

The subset characters are what every action adventure reader wants in a book. From the dark mysterious Cassiopia Vitt to Malone's ex boss Stephanie Nelle, not to mention the Templar Master de Roquefort, the supporting cast in The Templar Legacy are very well founded.

The Templar Legacy is an intricately woven and vividly descriptive novel that straps you in within the first few pages and rarely slows to allow to take a breath. Soon Malone and his ex-boss are swept into resuming a quest and solving a mystery that has been taken up by many over the centuries, but never solved. The story is painstakingly researched, and I perceive that Berry has taken great pains to get his facts correct.

Armchair Interviews says: Berry has created a fiction from fact concerning a topic very few in this country know about, and has done a fantastic job.