The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury Draws on Success of The Da Vinci Code

Written By Raymond Khoury

Signet

523 Pages

With the success of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, the literary world has been inundated with similar stories filled with religious conspiracies, hidden artifacts, and of course the Templar Knights. While many of those works are the publishing equivalent of a B-movie, one book has been able to set itself apart. This novel is Raymond Khoury's imaginative tale The Last Templar. Billed as a fast paced, action packed thriller, and described as cinematic in its scope, The Last Templar, recently released in paperback, provides an interesting read though at times, does not wholly deliver on its promises.

The Last Templar is able to grab the reader right from the start with a thrilling sequence featuring what the reader is led to believe are four Templar Knights attacking the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is having a black tie affair to kick off its newest exhibit "Treasures of the Vatican". Khoury also takes this opportunity to introduce Tess Chaykin, archeologist and museum guest. In the midst of the chaos caused by the appearance of the Templar Knights, Tess witnesses one of the Knights steal a strange looking machine. This sets the stage for the adventure to come.

FBI Special Agent, Sean Reilly, is given the daunting task of trying to solve the museum's robbery and the mystery behind subsequent murders which he discovers are linked to the initial heist. While running the investigation, Reilly interviews all witnesses including Tess Chaykin who while doing research on her own learns the machine taken by the Knight is actually an ancient Templar de-coding device. Together these two quickly find themselves swept up in a treasure hunt taking them across continents in search of a secret that could bring the religious world to its knees.

Reilly and Chaykin are pursued by one of Tess's archeologist colleagues whose grief over the loss of his family has driven him to becoming obsessed with bringing down the Catholic Church, and by the Church itself who is willing to do whatever it takes to prevent the Templar Knights' secret from being discovered and made public. This is where Khoury's writing really shines. He is able to blend both storylines in a way the reader not only gets caught up in the two main characters' plight, but also becomes sympathetic to the two conflicting antagonists' causes.

Interspersed throughout the book are flashbacks to the final days of the Templar Knights. Khoury uses these sequences perfectly as a back story for what is happening to Reilly and Chaykin. These few brief chapters are so well done it is easy to get sucked in by the Knights storyline as well. The views into the Templar Knights' world provided by these chapters offer a sense of realism to the novel.

The research done by author Raymond Khoury for The Last Templar is superb. Unlike many other books of similar material, Khoury does not fall back on speculation and wild theories, but instead relies on historical facts about the Knights Templar to tell his story. The use of actual events such as the Ararat Anomaly makes the story, though fantastic, seem plausible.

With all that being said, The Last Templar is not a perfect novel. Though the story does move along at a fairly fast clip, it does drag at times. One of the most disappointing aspects is when the reader discovers what the secret the Templar Knights were hiding two-thirds of the way through the book. This makes the last third seem rather anticlimactic. You also see Khoury's screen writing background come into play when in an effort to add one final twist to the story, he drags the ending out with a tired cinematic cliché that is a black mark on an otherwise well designed novel.

The characters of Sean Reilly and Tess Chaykin are completely believable and this is one of the strengths of the book. They are not perfect omniscient characters who have all the answers. They are flawed and subject to making irrational decisions particularly the character of Tess Chaykin who makes several ethically questionable choices. There is of course a romantic element that develops between the characters, but it is subtle and at no point is a distraction from the more important story Khoury weaves.

It would have been easy for Khoury to fall back on the mysterious mysticism that seems to follow the Knights Templar, but he manages to stay as true to historical accuracy as he possibly can. This is definitely a plus as Khoury is able to stay away from the trap of having his The Last Templar becoming a The Da Vinci Code clone.

With publishers churning out novels in hopes of capitalizing on the success of The Da Vinci Code it is hard for fans of the thriller genre to sift through the cheap knock offs and find a unique story. Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar is that hard to find publishing gem. He is able to successfully mix historical fact with a compelling and imaginative story. Though The Last Templar does have a few lulls, and the ending is not quite up to par with the rest of the book, it does live up to its action packed billing. The Last Templar is an enjoyable satisfying book that will leave readers feeling fulfilled and looking forward to Raymond Khoury's next novel.