The Temple and the Crown

April 15, 2001
Kurtz and Harris continue their saga telling the secret history, begun in " The Temple and the "Stone (1998), of the Templars and of two members of the secret Cercle, the French knight Arnault and the Scotsman Torquil, in particular. The English have turned against the Temple because it supports Robert the Bruce in Scotland, and the greed of Philip the Fair of France for Templar wealth is being manipulated by his chancellor, who is secretly allied with the Knights of the Black Swan, servants of Lucifer out to destroy the Temple's power to champion Christianity. As grisly persecution of the Templars rises to a climax in France, and the Bruce's situation becomes more desperate, Arnault and Torquil must retrieve potent relics from the Holy Land and reach Scotland in time to help overthrow the Bruce's enemies in the thundering climax of the Battle of Bannockburn. There may be too much secret mysticism in it for some tastes, but the tale is soundly researched, well written, and briskly paced. Kudos to the authors!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)