Book : The Lost Treasure Of The Templars - Becker, James

-Titulo Original : The Lost Treasure Of The Templars

-Fabricante :

Berkley

-Descripcion Original:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Templar Brotherhood presents the first novel in a thrilling series about the powerful secrets of the Knights Templar-and a conspiracy too shocking to believe...In a quiet English seaside town, antiquarian bookseller Robin Jessop has acquired an odd medieval volume. What appears to be a book isn’t a book at all, but a cleverly disguised safe, in which she finds a single rolled parchment, written in code .For encryption expert David Mallory, the text is impenetrable. Until an invaluable clue opens the door to a mystery, and a conspiracy, stretching back seven centuries, when the most powerful man in Europe declared war on the most powerful clan, the Knights Templar. Now, Jessop and Mallory find themselves on a global hunt for an unsurpassed treasure and this much closer to the keys to secrets that could change history, topple an empire, and bury them both alive. Because they’re not only the hunters. They’re also the hunted. Review Praise for James Becker’s Novels “Fast-paced action propels the imaginative and controversial plot.”- Publishers Weekly “This is an utterly spellbinding book...stunning and breathtaking....I was left shattered and stunned.”-Euro Crime “James Bond meets Alex Cross.”-Fresh Fiction “Extremely satisfying and ridiculously exciting!”-For Winter Nights “Superbly crafted...it breaks new ground...a tightly worded, sharply written thriller.”-CrimeSquad About the Author James Becker spent more than twenty years in the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm. Throughout his career he has been involved in covert operations in many of the worlds hot spots, including Yemen, Russia, and Northern Ireland. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Treasure of the Templars and The Templar Archive as well as the Chris Bronson novels, including The Lost Testament and Echo of the Reich. He also writes action-adventure novels under the name James Barrington and military history under the name Peter Smith in the U.K. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PRAISE FOR JAMES BECKER’S NOVELS ALSO BY JAMES BECKER SIGNET Prologue Acre, Palestine May 1291 “We have no choice. We agree or we die. All of us. It’s that simple.” Pierre de Sevry, the marshal of the Knights Templar in the Holy Land, rested his left hand on the pommel of his sheathed battle sword and looked around at the assembled company. His white tunic, bearing the unmistakable symbol of the order, the bloodred croix pattee, which had been used in various forms since 1147 to signify membership of this illustrious company of warrior monks, was ripped and torn and heavily stained with blood, some of it his own. His plate armor was dented, holed, and scratched from the almost continuous close combat that had been a daily feature of the siege of Acre since the first Mamluk attack on the city. The Mamluks-an elite caste of warrior slaves who had fought for the Egyptian rulers for over a century-had assumed power in Egypt a short time earlier, ending the reign of the descendants of the great Muslim leader Saladin. Thirty years earlier they had utterly destroyed a Mongol army at Ain Jalut, south of Nazareth, and had been undefeated ever since. By any standards, they were formidable opponents. A deep voice cut across the suddenly silent chamber. “For myself, I would be happy to give my life in this glorious mission.” De Sevry looked at the knight who had spoken, a man he knew had acquitted himself with conspicuous valor over the last few days, and nodded. “None of us doubt either your courage or your resolve, my brother, and all of us have been prepared to give our lives for the honor of God every day since we arrived in this place. But I have no wish to sacrifice myself or any of this company to no purpose. We are a mere handful of men, less than two hundred strong, and by our latest count the sultan Khalil has mustered an army of over