time of conspiracy, passion and war,
one young man discovers a secret
order within the Knights Templar…
When Will Campbell joins the most powerful organisation in Europe, the Order of the Knights Templar, he is drawn into a world of intrigue and danger. Apprenticed to the foul-tempered scholar Everard, he must try to make sense of many things: his own past, the dangerous mystery that surrounds Everard, and his feelings for Elwen, the strong-willed young woman whose path seems linked with his own.
Charged with recovering a mysterious book stolen from the Order’s vaults, a book that holds the key to a secret group of men within the Temple, Will embarks on a quest that will send him racing through the filthy backstreets of Paris and London to the burning plains of Syria and Palestine.
Meanwhile, a new star is rising in the East. A ruthless fighter and brilliant tactician, the former slave Baybars has become one of the greatest generals and rulers of his time. Haunted by his early life, he is driven by an unquenchable desire to free his people from the European invaders of his lands.
These two stories come together during that extraordinary clash of civilisations known in the West as the Crusades. Christian Knight will be pitted against Muslim Warrior in an epic struggle, in which both sides have their share of greed, ambition and religious fanaticism, as well as courage, love and faith.
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city of Acre, the last major stronghold
of the Crusaders in Palestine,
an epic conflict is just beginning.
Will Campbell is a Templar Knight trained for war, but as a member of the mysterious group known as the Brethren he is also a man of peace. After years of bloodshed, the Brethren have helped to create a truce between the Christians and Muslims. But Will now fears that they have been betrayed. King Edward of England, their once trusted patron, has made a promise to the pope that he will lead a new Crusade, while in Acre itself an even greater threat is growing. A ruthless cabal of Western merchants, profiteering from slaves and armaments, has devised a shocking plan to reignite hostilities in the Holy Land.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, Sultan Baybars is caught in a power struggle. His eldest son, and heir to the kingdom, has become involved in the dangerous designs of the insidious soothsayer, Khadir.
While Baybars wants to take on the mighty Mongol empire, Khadir and others want to destroy the Christians once and for all. With the sultan's son scheming against his own family, old scars of the Crusades are quickly uncovered and new wounds appear.
As war looms, Will is torn between his oath as a Templar, his secret role in the Brethren and his duty to Elwen, the woman he loves but is forbidden to marry. And when his old friend - and foe - Garin de Lyons arrives on a mission for King Edward, Will's life begins a devastating slide towards chaos and destruction.
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in the Holy Land lies in ruins
Returning to Paris, Knight Templar Will Campbell is at a crossroads. He has sworn to uphold the principles of the Anima Templi, a secret brotherhood within the Order whose aim is peace - but peace seems ever more impossible. The Temple has forged an alliance with Will's enemy, King Edward of England, vowing to help him wage war on Scotland. This pact against his homeland strikes at the core of Will's faith and allegiances, while his growing estrangement from his daughter, Rose, leads her into a dangerous affair.
Will now faces a bitter choice: to stay with the Temple and fight another war he doesn't believe in, or to break his vows and forge his own path to peace - even if that too means fighting - for the Scots.
Soon caught up in bloody conflict, Will is unaware that an even more ominous threat is rising, for there is a warrior king on the throne of France whose desire for supremacy knows no bounds and who will stop at nothing to fulfil his twisted ambitions.
The fight for the Holy Land has ended...
The Temple's last battle has just begun...
- Please note: this novel will be published as The Fall of the Templars in North America and Canada
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