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From Publishers Weekly
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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
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 Code.
There's a secret about early Christianity at the core of Berry's Templar Legacy, 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 as well.) Like Dan Brown, Berry draws on the seminal nonfiction work Holy Blood, Holy Grail 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 © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
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Most helpful customer reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Syntax - grammar - I don't think so!,
By RLH (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Templar Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)
I was excited to find this book as I have travelled to many of the small villages including Rennes-le-chateau. The book began well, but I soon tired of the many errors, the fabricated words, and the incomplete sentences. It's a good story, a page turner, but the errors really got to me.This author needs help. He must learn the difference between 'like' and 'as'. He should have known that the vessel in a church which contains water for baptising is a font (not a fount). He uses the American slang 'busted' for 'broken'. He begins one sentence with: "Let's don't ...". He uses the word 'secretion' to describe something hidden - NOT! When Stephanie is leaving her son Mark, he refers to their parting as a salutation. This book is about France. He should know 'salut' is a greeting. And wood is not 'ebonized', ebony IS wood. Oh where, oh where were his editors?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loaded with action and arcane facts,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Templar Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)
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, flambeed. 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-Chateau, 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 manyencounters 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. You should also check out -The Quest- by Giorgio Kostantinos, another incredible thriller
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
More Davinci style entertainment.,
This review is from: The Templar Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)
I read the Amber Room and enjoyed it, but did find it slow in places, and having a bit too much sensational sex and violence (I am all for sex and violence as long as it is central to the story). Over all though it was an entertaining read on a great subject, so I decided to try Mr. Berry's latest novel even though I am weary of all the Da Vinci Code clones. The Nights of the Templar is also slow in places, but is overall an entertaining novel. Like the Da Vinci this book is based on many of the ideas presented in the nonfiction book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" (these theories have been proven false and are not taken seriously by credible historians). I found the build up confusing in places and almost gave up on the book halfway through. The final third of the book saves the day with a convincing conclusion that makes the book worth while. Final conclusion: If you are looking for something to carry you through to the next Dan Brown thriller you will probably find this book entertaining. On the other hand, If you have had enough of the "Da Vinci Code hype, you might want to pass on this one. If you like historical/archeological mysteries I must recommend "Tourist in the Yucatan." A Da Vinci Code for the Americas!
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