Templar

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The Templars exploded onto the public conciousness with Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE, now journey with Paul Doherty to 1095 and experience the founding of the Templar Order in all its epic and brutal detail. 1095 and crusading fervour has swept Europe. Christ's fief of Jerusalem has been seized by the Infidels. The Frankish Knights of the West are to march east to liberate the Holy City. Hugh de Payens and Godefroi of St Omer, the soon-to-be founders of the Templar Order, and Hugh's younger sister, Eleanor, leave the security of their homes in Burgundy, France, with a plan to join Count Raymond of Toulouse's army, and march across the known world to Jerusalem. Follow the crusaders as they march through Europe into the glories of Byzantium and onto Syria. Witness the hardships, bloodshed and trickery on their treacherous travels to the Holy Land and know that though the crusaders' journey, and this novel, will end with their entry into the Holy City, the Crusades have yet to begin in earnest.From Publishers WeeklyMaster of the historical mystery, Doherty (The Spies of Sobeck) tries his hand at a straight historical in this less than impressive first in a new series set during the crusader era. In 1095, Pope Urban II's call to arms leads to the First Crusade. The action starts in 1096 with the initial mustering of forces to march on Jerusalem to liberate it from the Turks and ends in 1099 with the fall of Jerusalem to the crusaders. A man known as the Magus, who's responsible for a number of deaths, adds a minor mystery element. Focusing more on wartime brutalities than on char-acter development, Doherty fails to bring the past alive with his usual flair. His real-life main characters, French knights Hugh de Payens and Godefroi of St. Omer, the future founders of the Templar Order, engage the reader less than the leads in other of his series such as Hugh Corbett or Brother Athelsan. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn the first in a new historical-mystery series, Doherty explores the founding of the Knights Templar. With the exact origins of the sect unknown, Doherty is free to speculate, and he comes up with a plausible story about the men and women who went on the First Crusade and founded the Templars. After the call of Pope Urban in 1095, Eleanor, her brother Hugh, and his best friend Godefroi set off on the five-year crusade, during which they endure intense heat, dust, and winter rains. The mystery element here—Is foul play dogging the footsteps of the crusaders from the outset (one of their company is found dead even before they leave France)?—is overwhelmed by the historical detail and, in the end, is a little too easily resolved. Still, the story of the crusade and the taking of Jerusalem is compelling in itself, and Doherty’s take on the Templars is sure to interest those who have an insatiable fascination with the controversial group. --Jessica Moyer