The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Last Templar
Book Review: A Horrible, HORRIBLE read
Summary: 1 Stars
The options did not allow for less than a star.
I thought the premise sounded good and I picked this up, but it was an unbelievable boring read. I was not only offended as a (Lutheran) Christian, but as a scholar (the "evidence" for a cover-up has been adressed and answered decades ago) and as a reader (can you write characters that were more one-dimensional).
Seriously, Da Vinci Code was a good read, this book is an insult to intelligent people.
Book Review: A Science-fiction by a poor writer
Summary: 2 Stars
I read the first half and was dissapointed by the poor prose. Unfortunately, I had just read a couplo of Robert Parker books and I consider him to be a truly masterful writer. Khoury makes several technical errors implying either ignorance or a lack of energy to do research. For example, in Chapter 36, Tess fires a Taser at Vance. One of the probes "just missed its mark, flying past his chest" "but the second bit into his left thigh". Fifty thousand volts of electricity seared into him . . . ". I think a high school student knows that a Taser has two darts right next to each other and both must hit the subject in order to complete the electrical circuit. I don't think it would be possible for one to miss the chest and the other to hit the thigh and there would be no shock unless both hit the subject. Then in Chapter 46 Khoury would have us to believe that an X-ray of a shipping container would provide enough resolution to build a duplicate decoder. I am sure that our security people would love to have such an invention!
I think a good adventure/mystery book should confine itself to the the possible - even if it means stretching things a bit. But bringing in impossible or not-as-yet invented things is delving into Science-fiction or Fantasy.
Book Review: A Secret that Should Stay Hidden?
Summary: 4 Stars
Another author I have not read before. I know that the author is a screenwriter, whose current credits include the BBC spy thriller, Spooks. I am not sure if this is his first novel, but anyway thank goodness for new authors, particularly when they can write books as good as this one.
The year is 1291, a lonely ship sets sail from the harbour of Acre. On board is a small party of Templar Knights and a bound chest that has been entrusted to them by the Order's Grand Master. They are leaving a city in flames, and under the onslaught of the Sultan's men. The ship vanishes from the face of the earth . . .
The time moves swiftly forward to present day America. At the Metropolitan Museum in New York, four mounted men dressed in the old fashioned garb of Knights Templars make a savage attack at an exhibition of Vatican treasures and escape with a medieval decoder.
This is the beginning of the story that will take an FBI agent and a female archaeologist half way round the world in an attempt to solve a centuries old mystery, while at the same time trying to stay alive . . .
If you like this type of book and there are a few about, not to mention the Da Vinci Code. This is one of the better ones. An entertaining and enjoyable read.
Book Review: A Sham
Summary: 2 Stars
I liked this book for the first three-quarters, but watch out, the last step is a lulu. "The Last Templar" starts out promisingly enough, with lots of action and an interesting historical backstory. The prose, while wooden, is not as pulpy as "The DaVinci Code," and the characters are a bit more full-fleshed and sympathetic. Unfortunately, the story becomes more "Perils of Pauline" than engrossing historical thriller, and I realized that Mr. Khoury had bitten off more than he could chew. There was no way that he could end the book in a satisfying manner, and he didn't, but the finale was so crass and repugnant that I wanted to slap the man. I consider this book the Anti-DaVinci Code, because though the DVC had many flaws, it opened people's minds to new ideas, and made them reconsider old beliefs. "The Last Templar" dabbles in this, but its conclusion betrays the very readers that the title and opening premise lured in. To pardon the pun, the ending is a real "cop-out."Book Review: A better than average airplane read
Summary: 3 Stars
This author shows skill in putting together the usual ludicrous plot for this sort of book. The notion of fake knights iding into a New York public building sounds like a Hollywood screen writers idea of a good time in New York.
NYC is a tolerant place, but it's a little hard to suspend belief long enough to accept an impossible breach of securityy. And the book is still another cashing in on the supposed religious mysteries popularized by Dan Brown in the DaVinci Code and before that by the murky, supposedly non-fiction "Holy Blood, Holy Grail."
Those caveats aside, it's a bit of fun. The people who would benfit most from a minor pricking of religious silliness probably won't get it. Would I read something else by this author? Probably so.