The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury is the long awaited fictional sequel to The Last Templar. The Knights Templar existed for more than two hundred years doing the bidding of the Roman Catholic Church. At some point the knights have fallen out of favor with the Pope, were hunted down and took their secrets (and some say artifacts) to the grave.
Conrad, one of the last of the Templars, is on a mission — he must save several crates and ensure their safety. Archeologist Tess Chaykin is forced by a mysterious Iranian man to solve Conrad's mystery 700 years later while her boyfriend, FBI agent Sean Reilly, tries to save her from certain death.
Their adventure takes them to Europe and Turkey, meeting strange and wonderful people while their lives are being constantly threatened. Part of the mystery is what's in the trunks — the other part is what would they do if they find it.
The Templar Salvation is a fast, imaginative page-turner which brings back archaeologist Tess Chaykin and her boyfriend, FBI special agent Sean Reilly. This is an enthralling book and I could not find any glaring historical inaccuracies in it — quite the opposite. I thought learned a few things along he way.
The book jumps back and forth in time, switching between the story of one of the last Templars and our contemporary heroes. While the knight is trying to hide the objects of desire, central to the plot, Tess and Sean are following his footsteps trying to find them.
I did find some of Agent Reilly's luck and actions to be a bit too implausible - it seems as if the man cannot die and if he gets hurt he just shakes it off. Reilly also did things I thought were out of character. As a former solider I know that for a time I felt naked without my gun, it is hard for me to believe that Reilly would make the mistake of putting his gun in a backpack.
The Templar Salvation is filled with chases and fights (which I thought were overdrawn and could have been shortened - but that's nitpicking), but I truly enjoyed the historical perspectives which were mesmerizing. The reference to other characters in Templar books not written by Mr. Khoury certainly got a chuckle out of me. Overall this is an enjoyable book which was fast paced, with likable characters, and when it was all said and done, The Templar Salvation left me with some things to think about.
Article comments
1 - Leslie
Nice review, Very well thought out and concise. I like that you have given both the unbelievable as well as a quick synopsis of the book. The characterization is well done as well.
2 - Pez
Im currently about 7/8ths of the way through, i find the book to be action packed, and love that I am learning more and more about turkey around the 12-1300s, but i agree whole heartedly about riley, i am a current soldier and no one with any fire arms training would put there weapon in their backpack or have it anywhere out of reach, i would put a pistol in my belt before i put it in a bag. anyways i cant say anything bad about this book, it is better then the last templar by far.