The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury
Father-in-law Bud loaned this one to me, insisting I read it. As I've pawned off books on him, turnabout is fair play.
This is the second "Knights Templar"-craze book I've read (the first being The DaVinci Code), and it's easily the better. While the characterizations are Big Screen Action stock, and the plot isn't entirely original (but what is in this field?), the brisk clip of the narrative and healthy doses of action keep your fingers flipping pages throughout the night to see what The Secret Item really is that may - or may not - have made it out of the sack of Jerusalem so many centuries ago.
And that's the story: mystery item is sought by "evil" parties, comes into possession of a hero and later heroine (who, strangely, is so rampantly selfish as to be refreshing) and thus there is conflict. It spans the globe, has a Crusades-era sidestory, the deaths aren't overly gruesome, lots of chases and derring-do, and the romance isn't too forced or saccharine.
The opening heist featuring fully armored "Templars" on horseback raiding a museum would be terrific on screen (and it might be, as there was a mini-series earlier in the summer, but I've not watched it).
A note: this story was actually written as a screenplay BEFORE The DaVinci Code every came out, but was never produced. The writer was encouraged to turn it into a novel right around the time Dan Brown put his stamp on worldwide bestseller lists. So don't see this one as trite, a play on the Holy Grail-type story or just cheap paperback fiction.
It's a great beach read (not exactly high art, though), and I hear his subsequent scribblings are also quite good.
-Erik
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