The Templar Legacy: A Novel

I have started my adventure with Cotton Malone and it was a thrilling and wild ride. I mean right from the get go we were thrown into some heavy action with little knowledge of why. We are however introduced to our lead character of Cotton Malone, but this story is not just told from his perspective. It is actually told from a few others as well, including the main villain, a character know as the Seneschal, and sometimes from Cotton's former boss Stephanie Nelle.So Cotton formerly worked for the Justice Department until one incident pushes him into an early retirement. The story itself picks up a year after that where Cotton lives in Copenhagen as a sort of Book Antiquer. One day he gets a call from his former boss Stephanie that she will be in the area and it takes off from there. Cotton was a really great character to follow from. I'm intrigued by his overall persona and want to get to know more about him. Stephanie was an okay character, I liked her but she definitely could have been fleshed out a little more. This book really focuses a lot about her past but I was more intrigued by everything else going on. The character that hit me the most was actually the villain of the story. His drive, his tenacity, the lines he was willing to cross were executed very very well. Especially with this book focusing a lot on the Templar's and of course the truth behind them.The Templar Legacy did a fantastic job with the overall mystery and really keeping the reader on the edge. I know I was for pretty much the entirety of the book. I think the one thing I had a tad issue with was near the 75% mark the story and mystery became very info dumpy which I totally understood but it was at times quite repetitive. There was also a reveal in the book towards the end that I didn't particularly feel was necessary but it was minor.I overall thoroughly enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to read more of Cotton Malone's stories.

Like most of Mr Berry's book, very fun and riveting. This is the 7th book of his I read. Keeps you guessing, but lots of clues. He throws ing bits of read history that is almost not known anymore. Cotton keeps the action moving ( main character). If you haven't tried Mr. Berry's books, then try one. I recommend the first books to get to know the characters first. I plan on buying the rest of his books.

"It has served us well, this myth of Christ."A well known and strange quote from Pope Leo X, a powerful Medici in the mid 16th century that was the impetus to do research for this book by the author.The Templar Legacy: A Novel is a well researched fictional novel dealing with some very real people. The Knights Templar, also known as "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon" were routed in October 1307 by Philip the IV of France. Their land and fortune were confiscated. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. But for two hundred years, the Knights Templar had been the fighting force for the Christian's battle in the Crusades.Steve Berry's book finds us in the present day, with a Master possessing a single mindset of reinstating the Knights Templar to bygone glory. Steve Berry has done a large amount of research, and for anybody interested, he has included "Writer's Notes" at the end to explain what is real and not real. The book interweaves the popular story of Sauniere who built a church at Rennes with funds that were never accounted for - had Sauniere discovered the long lost Knights Templar treasure that had been hidden from King Philip?The one weakness is in character development: Lars Nelle just didn't make sense to me, as did Geoffery. But where Berry's coherent character lacks, his telling a tale of intrigue and mystery excelled. Many will compare this to Dan Brown's books, but were Dan possesses an innate showman's capability to cliff hang each chapter, Steve Berry draws the reader into the historical intrigue of the story itself.And, for Kindle owners, the story is beautifully formatted with a clickable TOC.

I bought this on a whim - I've heard some good things about Berry and I have to say, his writing style did not disappoint. And yes, it's entirely fair to say this is, er, "inspired" by Dan Brown.But I think it goes a little far to call it an outright knockoff. Cotton Malone makes for an intriguing protagonist, and the story moves along within his characterization. By that I mean I don't have to suspend a whole lot of disbelief to accept startling leaps of insight and intuition from the characters.The story itself is, well, I'm not sure it matters. I mean, the plot for thrillers doesn't have to be documentary-quality. Suffice it to say that facts cited aren't inaccurate, the story itself is plausible and works with its own internal logic, and it's not something that makes me roll my eyes. There are certain sequences in the book that had me turning pages...well, pressing the Next Page button on my Kindle anyway.In short, it's an enjoyable read...a good overview of history to make it accessible to the interested lay reader, enough facts to keep it interesting for those who know more about the history in question, and Berry does interesting things with it all to turn it into a work of fiction. It's a good book.

This book is drivel. Well-written drivel, with good character development, but drivel all the same.The setting and plot plagiarise the content of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" by Lincoln & Baigent even more closely than "The Da Vinci Code" does, but the author tries to go a step further in "solving" the wholly invented "riddles" contained therein by adding an extra layer of linguistic complexity - and fails dismally because his grasp of Latin is so poor.Everything hinges on the word for the first-person pronoun "I" being the same in English and Latin, which it patently isn't. (This error is all the more embarrassing because the actual Latin word for "I" - i.e. "Ego" - appears in an earlier part of the riddle being described.) The other vital clue involves translating the Latin phrase "Prae cum" as "Pray to come", which is childishly nonsensical. (The Latin word "precum" does mean prayer, but the rendering provided by the author cannot exist grammatically.)Mind you, the author also uses "mélange" when he means "mêlée" (to described a confused struggle involving a number of people) on several occasions, so it is not only in Latin where he falls down.More generally, the book is yet another tedious re-hashing of the hidden "truth" behind the Christian Gospels: namely that Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not the son of God, and Christianity was an entirely man-made enterprise.Of course, anyone is free to believe these stories or not, but the author parrots the conspiracist view that the four established Gospels contained within the New Testament are obviously and automatically untrue, and other "gospels" that have allegedly been discovered (Gospels of Thomas, John, Mary Magdalene etc.) are obviously and automatically true - when in fact, there is no real evidence of a historical basis for any Biblical writings.Granted, he admits that he invented the "Gospel of Peter" that he uses to suggest that Christianity was based on the concept of Christ living on in the minds of his followers rather than being physically resurrected - but the extremely heavily underlined sub-text is that this is what actually happened in reality in any case.Likewise, the author describes the Knights Templar as Gnostics, which is utterly untrue: the Templars were sworn enemies of the Gnostic heresy, and were Roman Catholics through and through. He even appears to hint that the Papacy, as the temporal representative of the Catholic Church, fomented the Albigensian heresy, which is ridiculous, as again, Roman Catholics including the Templars dedicated themselves to destroying it.All in all, Mr. Berry is a very good story-teller - but he does himself no favours by banging the drum of this terribly cliched subject in exactly the same way as so many have done before him.

The Templar LegacyOccasionally you come across an excellent book by complete chance. I had never heard of Steve Berry never mind any of his books. An error with the Kindle and I ended up with Berry’s book. It turned out to be one mistake that had a positive outcome.Cotton Malone is a retired American Intelligence agent. He has settled in Copenhagen where he has opened a bookshop. Meeting his former boss for lunch his hope for a relaxed social event is dashed as a mugging and a violent death take place right in front of him.At the heart of the matter are the Templars an organisation believed to have been wiped out in the fourteenth century. This is not the case though and the Templars are about to come out from the shadows to claim their heritage and right the wrongs done to them.Berry’s knowledge of the Templars comes through in practically every page. He links well both the factual content and the fictional interpretation. This results in an excellent and compelling story which may also cause the reader to question some fundamental beliefs of their own.I started this review by highlighting the fact that getting this book was an error. In addition I also said I had been unaware previously about the author. In the end I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and before long I intend having a look at some of Steve Berry’s other publications.Great book.

I realty enjoyed the end of this book, because meant I did not have to read any more. Unfortunately I bought on a deal of the day, and read three chapters and thought I stumbled on an other Ben Hope series and bought quite a few more that were on offer.There were three lines of plotting shortly afterwards, heck of a lot of inconsequential chit chat talking about the past and things biblical at every opportunity.Templar's that are suppose to be monastic seem to have guns on hand and are up for a bit of old fashion torture.With an ending that's a cross between National Treasure and Indiana Jones.Two star rating as I did not give up on it, but boy was I sorely tempted.It could have done with a bit of editing it down. Some authors I feel cheated that write 4 to 5 page chapters finishing a page on a few sentences and the stat the next way down the next page. This have very long chapters and when I saw the very long chapters I wish it had been the former, with the number of pages in the book. So rather a waste of paper this was a waste of my time.If you find this book similar to my experience, and prefer something with a bit of get up and go with only a smattering of history involved, try Scott Mariani's, Ben Hope series.

Next to Charles Dickens, this is the most boring book I have ever half read. I gave up at 51%!Firstly there is far too much religion. Secondly it is set in France with French names and a complex array of settings. I cannot keep up with foreign names of which I cannot form an image. Thirdly, some of it is set in Medieval times and some is modern. Which is which is, at times, difficult to discern. Fourthly it gives the impression that the bits about the Templars is fact whist actually nobody really knows anything about them. Lastly if this is "An explosive thriller" i hate to think what other thrillers are like. The amount of action in the first half was minimal and what there was could only be described as "tame". I have no idea what sort of "agent" the hero was but as he retired to run a second hand book shop I think that tells you all you need to know.If you suffer from insomnia - read this book. All will be cured!!!!

I've been intrigued by the Rennes-le-Chateau story ever since I saw Henry Lincoln's Chronicle programme on the subject so I'm always interested to see what new insights/twists writers can add to an already twisted story.This is the first Steve Berry book I've read and it turns out to be a pretty straightforward thriller, not quite so hectically paced as Dan Brown's, but moving along at a reasonable speed.Unfortunately, for me, there were no surprises or revelations. The "major twist midway through the story" was guessed several chapters before it happened. The text of the Gospel of Simon was a reasoned surmise, but I felt too sophisticated for a poor fisherman of that era to come up with.I'm not fully aware of Cotton Malone's background as I haven't read any of the other books featuring him, but I thought he was far too slow in picking up on the electronic car tag; this should have happened much earlier in the book. Also apart from the deciphering of the codexes, nothing was made of the fact that, although said to be the same, they were in fact different.I kept stumbling over the Great Devise as well; the phrase didn't really mean anything to me. I wondered if it was a spelling mistake and he meant device. It didn't become any clearer when the treasure and the "treasure" was found so I still don't know what he meant by this. And, as is usual for so many who tackle the Rennes/Jesus story, the cop-out of simply hiding the discovery away from the world. For myself, I would have found it much more interesting if there had been more on the Templars re-emerging from their self-imposed exile and telling the world what they had found. That would really have been a thriller.