The release date for the English version of 'The Last Templar' by
Raymond Khoury is Dec 2006. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
"It has served us well, this myth of Christ."
16th-century Pope Leo X
The Last Templar begins amid a storm of fire and glittering swords, as the burning city of Acre falls from the hands of the West in 1291. The young Templar knight, his instructor, and a few others flee to the sea with a mystery box that the Grand Master of the Order, who is dying, has given to them. The ship disappears into thin air.
During the black tie opening of a Treasures of the Vatican show, four masked horsemen costumed as Templar Knights ride up the Fifth Avenue stairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. They emerge from Central Park. The riders charge through the throng, savagely attacking anybody who is in their way of their treasure. Tess Chaykin, an archaeologist attending the gala, observes in quiet fear as the horsemen's commander focuses on a specific artifact, an odd geared mechanism. Holding it reverently, he utters a few mysterious Latin phrases before leading the riders out and vanishing into the darkness.
Sean Reilly, an FBI expert in counterterrorism, is in charge of an investigation after the incident. He and Tess soon find themselves entangled in the shadowy past of the crusading Knights, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with vicious assassins as they travel across three continents in an attempt to uncover the Templars' long-lost secret.