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Templar #5
End Game
Used - Like New
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2014
213 people are currently reading
2213 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Khoury
54 books1,255 followersRaymond Khoury is the author of five consecutive New York Times and #1 international bestsellers, starting with his debut novel, THE LAST TEMPLAR. His books have been translated into 38 languages, with over 10 million copies in print.
Raymond came to writing thrillers from a career in screenwriting, which including the BAFTA award winning BBC series SPOOKS (aka MI:5 in the US) and Waking The Dead. It partly explains why his novels are often described as cinematic and very visual. As fellow bestselling author Steve Berry puts it: "his expertly chosen verbs cause the scenes to leap from the page. You can literally feel the blows as they're landed; wince as the bullets find their marks. He has an intense brand of storytelling all his own."
THE LAST TEMPLAR began its journey to print as Raymond's third original screenplay, written for film in 1996. At the time, a book agent suggested turning it into a novel, and a major NY publisher, the first to read it, offered Raymond a huge advance for the as-yet-unwritten novel, with one condition: "Lose the religion. It's boring. Change the Templars' secret to gold, diamonds, a physical treasure." After much tortured consideration, Raymond turned the offer down, his first potential check from writing. Almost exactly ten years later, his novel, based on that screenplay--religion included--became a global bestseller, hitting #1 in multiple countries and getting adapted into an NBC miniseries.
Raymond's thrillers are based on big themes that interest him such as international politics and conspiracies, fact vs faith, why we age and die, what do we really know about reincarnation, about mind control. He explores these themes in depth, with heavy emphasis on research, and often combines a historical angle to his stories. As such, some of his novels (THE LAST TEMPLAR, THE SANCTUARY, THE TEMPLAR SALVATION, RASPUTIN'S SHADOW) feature dual timelines: the bulk of the stories are set in the present day, interspersed with chapters that take place in the distant past. As Booklist puts it, "Khoury's thrillers engage the reader's mind, even as they move at a breakneck pace. Readers who like their thrillers to have a solid intellectual component will enjoy Khoury's books very much. Given the high quality of each of his novels, it seems fair to say that he may be around for a while."
Raymond's 8th novel is an epic alternate history and time travel story that Publishers Weekly called "ingeniously inventive" and "a classic of the genre": It is already out in the UK as THE OTTOMAN SECRET, and is out on Oct 1 in the US under a different title, EMPIRE OF LIES.
To find out more about him and his work, visit his website at raymondkhoury.com or connect with him on his Facebook page or on Instagram (@author.raymond.khoury).
Raymond came to writing thrillers from a career in screenwriting, which including the BAFTA award winning BBC series SPOOKS (aka MI:5 in the US) and Waking The Dead. It partly explains why his novels are often described as cinematic and very visual. As fellow bestselling author Steve Berry puts it: "his expertly chosen verbs cause the scenes to leap from the page. You can literally feel the blows as they're landed; wince as the bullets find their marks. He has an intense brand of storytelling all his own."
THE LAST TEMPLAR began its journey to print as Raymond's third original screenplay, written for film in 1996. At the time, a book agent suggested turning it into a novel, and a major NY publisher, the first to read it, offered Raymond a huge advance for the as-yet-unwritten novel, with one condition: "Lose the religion. It's boring. Change the Templars' secret to gold, diamonds, a physical treasure." After much tortured consideration, Raymond turned the offer down, his first potential check from writing. Almost exactly ten years later, his novel, based on that screenplay--religion included--became a global bestseller, hitting #1 in multiple countries and getting adapted into an NBC miniseries.
Raymond's thrillers are based on big themes that interest him such as international politics and conspiracies, fact vs faith, why we age and die, what do we really know about reincarnation, about mind control. He explores these themes in depth, with heavy emphasis on research, and often combines a historical angle to his stories. As such, some of his novels (THE LAST TEMPLAR, THE SANCTUARY, THE TEMPLAR SALVATION, RASPUTIN'S SHADOW) feature dual timelines: the bulk of the stories are set in the present day, interspersed with chapters that take place in the distant past. As Booklist puts it, "Khoury's thrillers engage the reader's mind, even as they move at a breakneck pace. Readers who like their thrillers to have a solid intellectual component will enjoy Khoury's books very much. Given the high quality of each of his novels, it seems fair to say that he may be around for a while."
Raymond's 8th novel is an epic alternate history and time travel story that Publishers Weekly called "ingeniously inventive" and "a classic of the genre": It is already out in the UK as THE OTTOMAN SECRET, and is out on Oct 1 in the US under a different title, EMPIRE OF LIES.
To find out more about him and his work, visit his website at raymondkhoury.com or connect with him on his Facebook page or on Instagram (@author.raymond.khoury).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
February 27, 2018
Really love this book.
Great characters, brilliantly written story lines, that are exciting and well thought out but believable. Love this series, this one not as good as first 2 books, but easily up to the standard of books 3 & 4. I have awarded 4 stars mainly as i felt a couple of the chapters didn't really add anything to the story.
Really hope there will be a book 6!
Lets hope this review doesn't disappear like the first one.
Great characters, brilliantly written story lines, that are exciting and well thought out but believable. Love this series, this one not as good as first 2 books, but easily up to the standard of books 3 & 4. I have awarded 4 stars mainly as i felt a couple of the chapters didn't really add anything to the story.
Really hope there will be a book 6!
Lets hope this review doesn't disappear like the first one.
July 22, 2016
Returning to his highly-acclaimed series, Khoury pulls the reader into one of his most fast-paced novels to date. While he is still trying to come to terms with the brief kidnapping of his young son, FBI Special Agent Sean Reilly wrestles with another memory buried deep in his mind. As a ten year old, Reilly returned home to find his father dead in his study, the apparent victim of a suicide. However, when an anonymous caller reveals that there may be more to it, Reilly is intrigued and sets up a meeting. Rather than learning more, Reilly is pulled into the middle of a trap, with a body of a CIA operative awaiting him and evidence that he committed the crime. Reilly is being hunted and must go on the lam, not only to discover the truth about his father, but to protect himself, while still chasing the CIA ghost that took his son. While he dodges the authorities, Reilly becomes the target of a secret collection of CIA assassins who work on the Dark Web. They may be responsible for a number of high-profile hits that were camouflaged to be accidents, all for reasons few understand. As Reilly digs deeper, he realises that his father might well have been involved in this organisation and his death a means of payback for a chink in his armour. Can Reilly sacrifice all that he holds sacred to uncover this group and get to its core, or will be end up being another man whose blood in spilled in the name of the cabal? Khoury knows how to spin a tale and keeps the reader panting as they seek to catch up with this explosive story.
The series has morphed from being one whose focus fell within the Templar mysteries to this more action-packed Bourne-esque race for the truth. While I am fond of the former, some of the middle novels that tried to pull away were less than enthralling for me. I returned to give this one a shot and found myself interested, though the one man fighting the BIG MACHINE can sometimes get a little tiresome. That said, Khoury knows how to inject action into a plot and keeps the reader guessing where things will go. Peppering the story with some humour and just the right amount of drama, the reader feels balanced in the novel's approach, yet there is something missing. I seek teamwork, action, historical drama when I think of the Reilly-Chaykin series, but this has the former racing around and calling in to touch base with the latter, who is also the woman he loves. It could be me, an likely is, but I had hoped for a more balanced, team-based approach.
Kudos, Mr. Khoury for this well-crafted novel. My tastes are not the only ones who matter and I hope others have a more electrifying sentiment when they complete this book.
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
The series has morphed from being one whose focus fell within the Templar mysteries to this more action-packed Bourne-esque race for the truth. While I am fond of the former, some of the middle novels that tried to pull away were less than enthralling for me. I returned to give this one a shot and found myself interested, though the one man fighting the BIG MACHINE can sometimes get a little tiresome. That said, Khoury knows how to inject action into a plot and keeps the reader guessing where things will go. Peppering the story with some humour and just the right amount of drama, the reader feels balanced in the novel's approach, yet there is something missing. I seek teamwork, action, historical drama when I think of the Reilly-Chaykin series, but this has the former racing around and calling in to touch base with the latter, who is also the woman he loves. It could be me, an likely is, but I had hoped for a more balanced, team-based approach.
Kudos, Mr. Khoury for this well-crafted novel. My tastes are not the only ones who matter and I hope others have a more electrifying sentiment when they complete this book.
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
March 9, 2016
Interesting read for me - my first Raymond Khoury novel, apparently the series is very popular and I can see why. A top notch thriller. Full review to follow.
May 18, 2021
I have been looking for this book and looking...
Thankfully we have a wonderful library system in MN and they sent the book to my library from some town I never even heard of! This book is another example of why I like Khoury as an author. It was a fitting end to the series and I will miss the cast.
Thankfully we have a wonderful library system in MN and they sent the book to my library from some town I never even heard of! This book is another example of why I like Khoury as an author. It was a fitting end to the series and I will miss the cast.
March 30, 2020
THis was a book taht took a while to get going and it was just the last 100 pages or so when it started to all come together.
March 2, 2016
The End Game isn't just Raymond Khoury's best book in years, it's one of the best books of 2016!
The book opens with the interrogation of Kyle Rossetti, an award winning journalist who is being questioned about a recent phone conversation he had. The unidentified man who was asking the questions was all business. Rossetti had been put through the ringer while trying to protect his sources before, so that in itself wasn't new for him. Heck, he even had a four month prison stay to his name over an incident where he refused to name a source, which ultimately left him accused of committing treason. He was later released after an appeal.
No, being in hot water wasn't anything new for Rossetti. What was new, however, was that the person interrogating him seemed to be playing by an entirely different set of rules than any other situation he'd previously found himself in. And by a " different set of rules," I mean that there were none. Nothing was off limits, which is why Rossetti currently had a very long needle stabbed into his spine.
Rossetti played tough at first, but ultimately realized his life might be at stake and quickly gave up the tough-guy facade. He was ready to squeal like a pig, talk faster than an auctioneer, and spill the beans quicker than... well, you get the picture! There was just one problem though-- he didn't know anything.
All he could admit to was the truth, which wasn't much. He'd been contacted by someone using some sort of voice changing device, and given very limited instructions on how and where to meet for information that would lead to a big story. He followed the directions given, but the other person never showed up. After that, he was grabbed late at night outside his apartment in Harlem.
Rossetti, tragically, was mixed up in something far bigger than he could have ever imagined. His lack of information cost him his life, but his death was just the beginning...
Unbeknownst to Rossetti or anyone else, a man named Dr. Raph Padley was seeking redemption before his life came to an end. Padley was, as most people knew, a medical professor at Harvard. He made a name for himself in the medical world of cardiovascular pharmacology when he set his sights on developing a new drug that would effectively end the need for beta blockers and pace makers in people with heart conditions.
Instead, Padley inadvertently created the exact opposite of what he had intended. Rather than inventing a breakthrough new medicine that could prolong people's lives, he had accidentally concocted a very lethal substance that worked quite well at ending a person's time here on earth.
Padley kept his creation a secret at first, and even considered destroying all the evidence and simply forgetting everything, as if it never happened. That didn't work though, so he went in a different direction.
The doctor's deep level of patriotism led to him contacting the Central Intelligence Agency, where he offered to let them use his creation as a weapon against their enemies. This CIA, for their part, was all too excited about the prospects of Padley's new drug.
Now, years later, the good doctor was in frail health. Pancreatic cancer had zapped whatever energy was left in his sixty-nine-year-old body, and he was beginning to fear that his hand in the death of many of his fellow human beings could have dire consequences in whatever awaited him in the afterlife. Yes, he'd saved many people as a doctor, but the dead haunted him as death knocked increasingly louder on his door.
It was Padley who had used the voice changing device, which he'd kept from his days working with the CIA, and contacted the reporter. He wanted the truth to come out, and he'd been very careful to cover his tracks and keep his identity hidden. He felt guilty that Rossetti had died, but wasn't ready to relent in his quest to seek mental and spiritual peace through the act of coming clean. Problem was, he didn't want to get killed - even though he was already dying - before he had a chance to get his message out.
What Padley needed was someone else, someone who knew how to follow instructions and who would know what to do with the information he longed to share. After a little searching the doctor keyed in on one man, believing that man was his final chance to tell the truth. So once again he picked up the voice changer, this time dialing the number for FBI Special Agent Sean Reilly.
Reilly took the call, but his head was elsewhere. He was still trying to adjust to life as a father, something that came as quite a surprise to him just one year ago. An ex-lover failed to tell him that she'd become pregnant, and by the time Sean found out that he had a son, the boy was already four years of age.
What's worse is that his son, Alex, had been caught up in an extravagant operation to catch some drug dealers. A former operative with the CIA named Reed Corrigan had little Alex brainwashed, and Sean was still hauling his son to a shrink every week to help unscramble his brain.
What Sean wanted was revenge for his son--he wanted Corrigan. He'd been trying to track the man down with little success for months, when he finally caught a break. Now there was this anonymous caller with "information" for him, and suddenly his plate went from full to overflowing.
Sean Reilly soon discovers that the two pressing issues at hand are, shockingly, actually connected. More than that, they're intertwined and related to an event that has haunted the FBI agent his entire life - the death of his father.
Why I loved it
Raymond Khoury is a master at weaving suspense, intrigue and action throughout a story--and he's never done it better than in The End Game. The plot moves a breakneck speeds, keeping the reader engaged and on the edge of their seat from the very first page.
At one point in the story, Sean Reilly utters the line: "We're never done with our past. Or rather, the past is never done with us."
That phrase resonated with me because we've all been there. Something you've done or that has happened to you, which you want desperately to move on from, keeps creeping back up and interrupting your life. You can't escape it, you can't forget it, and eventually you realize that all you can do is confront it.
In many ways that's what this book is all about, and it's fantastic!
Why you should read it
Sean Reilly goes on to learn that his father's death, which was ruled a suicide, may have in fact actually been a murder. Raymond Khoury then goes on to brilliantly connect that to Sean's son, Alex, and Doctor Padley -- all in a way that readers will never see coming.
Eventually, some very powerful people frame Sean for crimes he never committed in an effort to silence him. With his back against the wall and nowhere to go, Reilly fights back in a ballsy fashion and with little help. The End Game is Raymond Khoury at his very best, and a must-read for any fan of the thriller genre.
The book opens with the interrogation of Kyle Rossetti, an award winning journalist who is being questioned about a recent phone conversation he had. The unidentified man who was asking the questions was all business. Rossetti had been put through the ringer while trying to protect his sources before, so that in itself wasn't new for him. Heck, he even had a four month prison stay to his name over an incident where he refused to name a source, which ultimately left him accused of committing treason. He was later released after an appeal.
No, being in hot water wasn't anything new for Rossetti. What was new, however, was that the person interrogating him seemed to be playing by an entirely different set of rules than any other situation he'd previously found himself in. And by a " different set of rules," I mean that there were none. Nothing was off limits, which is why Rossetti currently had a very long needle stabbed into his spine.
Rossetti played tough at first, but ultimately realized his life might be at stake and quickly gave up the tough-guy facade. He was ready to squeal like a pig, talk faster than an auctioneer, and spill the beans quicker than... well, you get the picture! There was just one problem though-- he didn't know anything.
All he could admit to was the truth, which wasn't much. He'd been contacted by someone using some sort of voice changing device, and given very limited instructions on how and where to meet for information that would lead to a big story. He followed the directions given, but the other person never showed up. After that, he was grabbed late at night outside his apartment in Harlem.
Rossetti, tragically, was mixed up in something far bigger than he could have ever imagined. His lack of information cost him his life, but his death was just the beginning...
Unbeknownst to Rossetti or anyone else, a man named Dr. Raph Padley was seeking redemption before his life came to an end. Padley was, as most people knew, a medical professor at Harvard. He made a name for himself in the medical world of cardiovascular pharmacology when he set his sights on developing a new drug that would effectively end the need for beta blockers and pace makers in people with heart conditions.
Instead, Padley inadvertently created the exact opposite of what he had intended. Rather than inventing a breakthrough new medicine that could prolong people's lives, he had accidentally concocted a very lethal substance that worked quite well at ending a person's time here on earth.
Padley kept his creation a secret at first, and even considered destroying all the evidence and simply forgetting everything, as if it never happened. That didn't work though, so he went in a different direction.
The doctor's deep level of patriotism led to him contacting the Central Intelligence Agency, where he offered to let them use his creation as a weapon against their enemies. This CIA, for their part, was all too excited about the prospects of Padley's new drug.
Now, years later, the good doctor was in frail health. Pancreatic cancer had zapped whatever energy was left in his sixty-nine-year-old body, and he was beginning to fear that his hand in the death of many of his fellow human beings could have dire consequences in whatever awaited him in the afterlife. Yes, he'd saved many people as a doctor, but the dead haunted him as death knocked increasingly louder on his door.
It was Padley who had used the voice changing device, which he'd kept from his days working with the CIA, and contacted the reporter. He wanted the truth to come out, and he'd been very careful to cover his tracks and keep his identity hidden. He felt guilty that Rossetti had died, but wasn't ready to relent in his quest to seek mental and spiritual peace through the act of coming clean. Problem was, he didn't want to get killed - even though he was already dying - before he had a chance to get his message out.
What Padley needed was someone else, someone who knew how to follow instructions and who would know what to do with the information he longed to share. After a little searching the doctor keyed in on one man, believing that man was his final chance to tell the truth. So once again he picked up the voice changer, this time dialing the number for FBI Special Agent Sean Reilly.
Reilly took the call, but his head was elsewhere. He was still trying to adjust to life as a father, something that came as quite a surprise to him just one year ago. An ex-lover failed to tell him that she'd become pregnant, and by the time Sean found out that he had a son, the boy was already four years of age.
What's worse is that his son, Alex, had been caught up in an extravagant operation to catch some drug dealers. A former operative with the CIA named Reed Corrigan had little Alex brainwashed, and Sean was still hauling his son to a shrink every week to help unscramble his brain.
What Sean wanted was revenge for his son--he wanted Corrigan. He'd been trying to track the man down with little success for months, when he finally caught a break. Now there was this anonymous caller with "information" for him, and suddenly his plate went from full to overflowing.
Sean Reilly soon discovers that the two pressing issues at hand are, shockingly, actually connected. More than that, they're intertwined and related to an event that has haunted the FBI agent his entire life - the death of his father.
Why I loved it
Raymond Khoury is a master at weaving suspense, intrigue and action throughout a story--and he's never done it better than in The End Game. The plot moves a breakneck speeds, keeping the reader engaged and on the edge of their seat from the very first page.
At one point in the story, Sean Reilly utters the line: "We're never done with our past. Or rather, the past is never done with us."
That phrase resonated with me because we've all been there. Something you've done or that has happened to you, which you want desperately to move on from, keeps creeping back up and interrupting your life. You can't escape it, you can't forget it, and eventually you realize that all you can do is confront it.
In many ways that's what this book is all about, and it's fantastic!
Why you should read it
Sean Reilly goes on to learn that his father's death, which was ruled a suicide, may have in fact actually been a murder. Raymond Khoury then goes on to brilliantly connect that to Sean's son, Alex, and Doctor Padley -- all in a way that readers will never see coming.
Eventually, some very powerful people frame Sean for crimes he never committed in an effort to silence him. With his back against the wall and nowhere to go, Reilly fights back in a ballsy fashion and with little help. The End Game is Raymond Khoury at his very best, and a must-read for any fan of the thriller genre.
February 27, 2018
Still catching my breath
Great storytelling! From the very first page, you're hooked. Of course parts of it are totally over the top, but I learned a lot about hypothermia.
Great storytelling! From the very first page, you're hooked. Of course parts of it are totally over the top, but I learned a lot about hypothermia.
March 18, 2016
Raymond Khoury at his best! A must read even if you haven't experienced him before.
Once again Raymond Khoury delivers and delivers big time. End Game is an amazing ride from beginning to end. Whether you are and avid reader of Raymond's novels or this is a first time read you will love this thriller. The story moves fast between the action going on around the main character and the jump to his first person narrative. This will be hard to put down as each chapter will leave you wanting to know what is next. A nice touch with supporting cast that satisfies the geek side of some of us. I really had to pause and image her as Wonder Woman. :-)
If this is your first Raymond Khoury novel, you will be grabbing the rest to read and then doing End Game one more time.
Once again Raymond Khoury delivers and delivers big time. End Game is an amazing ride from beginning to end. Whether you are and avid reader of Raymond's novels or this is a first time read you will love this thriller. The story moves fast between the action going on around the main character and the jump to his first person narrative. This will be hard to put down as each chapter will leave you wanting to know what is next. A nice touch with supporting cast that satisfies the geek side of some of us. I really had to pause and image her as Wonder Woman. :-)
If this is your first Raymond Khoury novel, you will be grabbing the rest to read and then doing End Game one more time.
December 20, 2020
grammar:
p18: Fingering Daland was as the man behind the curtain wasn't easy.
p52: He also kept a sixty-foot sport fisher in the harbor, but that purely for pleasure.
p111: He managed to convince Sandman leave the Agency and join him for that ride.
p331:
The their cyber crimes team found the server with a little help from the NSA, they cloned it, they combed through the transaction records and used what they found as evidence to indict the guy who set it up.
punctuation:
p64: I needed to be at Penn Station at two for our Acela Express down to DC I was already going to be on thin ice with Tess once I told her I'd be ditching her at Union Station and meeting up with her at the hotel later.
spelling:
p362: With wasn't natural.
My copy could very well be independently published, considering the amount of errors. I wasn't able to spot a plot hole, though, which says a lot.
I fear, though, that Sean's adventures are drawing to a close.
p18: Fingering Daland was as the man behind the curtain wasn't easy.
p52: He also kept a sixty-foot sport fisher in the harbor, but that purely for pleasure.
p111: He managed to convince Sandman leave the Agency and join him for that ride.
p331:
The their cyber crimes team found the server with a little help from the NSA, they cloned it, they combed through the transaction records and used what they found as evidence to indict the guy who set it up.
punctuation:
p64: I needed to be at Penn Station at two for our Acela Express down to DC I was already going to be on thin ice with Tess once I told her I'd be ditching her at Union Station and meeting up with her at the hotel later.
spelling:
p362: With wasn't natural.
My copy could very well be independently published, considering the amount of errors. I wasn't able to spot a plot hole, though, which says a lot.
I fear, though, that Sean's adventures are drawing to a close.
May 25, 2016
There's just one little problem - this book isn't available in book form so if you feel comfortable with a real book and not a bunch of dots on a screen, you need to order it from the UK. Maybe someday there will be a real book released in the US, but not yet.
Raymond Khoury just keeps getting better. This is your basic nail-biter with enough plot twists and turns to keep you guessing right up to the end - and you won't see the end coming - maybe you'll figure it out, but chances are you won't and if you do, you'll still be surprised.
It's well worth the extra bucks you'll have to pay to get it from the UK.
Raymond Khoury just keeps getting better. This is your basic nail-biter with enough plot twists and turns to keep you guessing right up to the end - and you won't see the end coming - maybe you'll figure it out, but chances are you won't and if you do, you'll still be surprised.
It's well worth the extra bucks you'll have to pay to get it from the UK.
March 9, 2024
I’d probably give this 4.5 stars if I could. It was twisty and kept you guessing the whole time. I thought I figured out the big shock ending about halfway through and ended up being wrong and surprised. The last like 2-3 chapters of resolution at the end were kinda meh, but other than that, really good
March 13, 2021
The fifth in the series - my first!
A very good read. Plot builds well and at a relentless pace. Some elements of the plot are a tad unbelievable but not so as to reduce the overall enjoyment.
I would certainly go back and pick up some of the earlier books in the series.
A very good read. Plot builds well and at a relentless pace. Some elements of the plot are a tad unbelievable but not so as to reduce the overall enjoyment.
I would certainly go back and pick up some of the earlier books in the series.
May 17, 2016
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads Giveaways.
This was a difficult one for me. I haven't read any of Khoury's other books, but I don't think that was an issue. The story was fast paced and gripping; the characters we good, but there was something missing. It took me over two weeks to read, when I normally finish books of this size in less than a week.
My main issue was the lack of 'whodunit'. I wasn't really given a chance to wonder what was going to happen before it did. The story was churned out more than anything, and it left me bored after just reading a chapter.
Despite that, I've given this 4 stars, although it's probably more like 3.5. The story really is a good one, but I don't think it was particularly cleverly written like some of the other crime novels I love.
I probably won't read the rest of the series, unless someone gave me a free copy.
This was a difficult one for me. I haven't read any of Khoury's other books, but I don't think that was an issue. The story was fast paced and gripping; the characters we good, but there was something missing. It took me over two weeks to read, when I normally finish books of this size in less than a week.
My main issue was the lack of 'whodunit'. I wasn't really given a chance to wonder what was going to happen before it did. The story was churned out more than anything, and it left me bored after just reading a chapter.
Despite that, I've given this 4 stars, although it's probably more like 3.5. The story really is a good one, but I don't think it was particularly cleverly written like some of the other crime novels I love.
I probably won't read the rest of the series, unless someone gave me a free copy.
May 13, 2018
This book brings the series to a close. The book is very focused on Agent Reilly and is provides the series with closure. Because the book is rather focused on Reilly I found it less compelling to read than other books in the series, yet the book moves well and the characters are still well written.
May 18, 2021
Raymond Khoury at his best
Khoury does a phenomenal job of bringing Sean Reilly's past colliding with his present. The nonstop intrigue of life on the run as a murder suspect while trying to unmask the man behind his son's torment brings Sean unexpectedly to revelations about his own father's suicide years before.
Khoury does a phenomenal job of bringing Sean Reilly's past colliding with his present. The nonstop intrigue of life on the run as a murder suspect while trying to unmask the man behind his son's torment brings Sean unexpectedly to revelations about his own father's suicide years before.
November 26, 2020
A fitting end to the Templar series. This time Reilly ids trying to clear his name rather than find a relic. No historical connection this time either but that doesn’t detract from the excitement & thrills.
My biggest criticism would be with the ending which I felt was very weak and a little too obvious for my liking.
My biggest criticism would be with the ending which I felt was very weak and a little too obvious for my liking.
August 23, 2025
Not great. The book starts off with a mention of Reilly previously saving the president's life. There was no explanation or recall of how that came to be, which was disappointing. The book moved along snoothly enough until about 3/4 of the way through. At that point I started having a lot of qualms about the story. A non-exhaustive list of things that bothered me: Reilly makes it a point to say how wide the breadth of facial recognition technology is, then proceeds to travel to dozens of places undisguised without a care. Then Khoury really wants to make sure his reader knows how kinky the female coder is, to the point where she jeapordizes their entire secret undercover mission because she needs to say out loud how horny she is. As the story continues, it really just starts to get wildly unbelievable. There is a lot of intense and unpleasant voilence. The female cop jeapordizes her entire career and freedom to help a guy who was nice to her at a work dinner once, just because she's sad about her boyfriend of 2 months who was collateral damage. Am I also really supposed to believe Reilly drove a car up a winding mountain road from the passenger side footwell with a selfie stick? The ending was asinine. The story should've ended with Roos in the woods. The whole conversation between Reilly and the President had me rolling my eyes. He's going to demand the President step down because he's had people killed that were deemed threats to national security. Meanwhile, throughout the whole book Reilly is using "national security" as HIS excuse, and him, Tess, and Deutsch had already murdered at least 15 people at that point. Pot calling the kettle black. The morally superior character of Reilly was tarnished. A disappointing way to end this series. All the other Templar books had their flaws as well but were much more enjoyable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2020
This series has moved pretty far away from its beginnings. Instead of historical artefacts and Templar secrets, we're in fullblown murderous CIA/government officials conspiracy territory here, with protagonist Reilly charging around like a macho madman on a crusade (pun intended) for vengeance in typical overblown action thriller fashion. Lots of eyeroll moments, but still kind of entertaining - though admittedly one star goes solely to the fact that Khoury has finally managed to include a couple of actually likable female characters who are neither prone to constantly running off doing stupid shit and/or getting themselves kidnapped (Tess in books 1 & 2) or relegated to the sidelines to play terribly distressed (step-)mom/girlfriend (Tess in books 3 & 4 as well as most of the pagetime she got in this one). It's a good thing this is the last book in the series, because if it weren't, it'd be the point where I give up.
September 17, 2022
really good finale to the Templar series! started out years ago in the Dan Brown-inspired historical genre, and by about book 3 had morphed into it's own series, which was probably for the best.
really good pacing, action, characters, and (for once) a very satisfying and well-written conclusion. unlikely between the ending and the years that have passed since this book came out that we'll see another, nor would it really fit.
4.5 stars, rounding to 5 due to book underappreciated ranking/status.
really good pacing, action, characters, and (for once) a very satisfying and well-written conclusion. unlikely between the ending and the years that have passed since this book came out that we'll see another, nor would it really fit.
4.5 stars, rounding to 5 due to book underappreciated ranking/status.
March 25, 2018
Ich mochte den Auftakt der Reihe, The Last Templar, vor Jahren ziemlich gerne, und kaufte deshalb irgendwann letztes Jahr The End Game, den mittlerweile fünften Band um den FBI-Agenten Sean Reilly. Es war nicht unbedingt schlecht, ich mochte das schnelle Tempo ziemlich gerne, aber mir was das im Verhältnis zu anderen Büchern aus dem Genre doch etwas überkonstruiert - und es funktionierte meiner Meinung nach nicht als von der Reihe unabhängiges Buch. Und das fand ich doch irgendwo schade.
October 8, 2018
Dark side of government .
I have always enjoy Mr .Khoury books story line and plot always has a hook , He is not afraid to kill off character who is well liked or you think has major part in book .
By using our history in the back ground in his story line always makes the story more interesting to me .President who think anything they do makes them a patriotic . Other good read .
Thank you
I have always enjoy Mr .Khoury books story line and plot always has a hook , He is not afraid to kill off character who is well liked or you think has major part in book .
By using our history in the back ground in his story line always makes the story more interesting to me .President who think anything they do makes them a patriotic . Other good read .
Thank you
July 21, 2024
Although it has a meh ending, I loved this book because:
1.It has a good structure, I like how we get introduced to charcters in different times and then it all connects
2. the knowledge induced about CIA tools, hacking nerds and medicine-for-kill was amazing
3. the actual fight scenes were supert and tactical
4. Smart villians
5. Raymond is born in my home country-Lebanon, and that’s why this is close to my heart. I’m proud that someone came out and delivered his talents
1.It has a good structure, I like how we get introduced to charcters in different times and then it all connects
2. the knowledge induced about CIA tools, hacking nerds and medicine-for-kill was amazing
3. the actual fight scenes were supert and tactical
4. Smart villians
5. Raymond is born in my home country-Lebanon, and that’s why this is close to my heart. I’m proud that someone came out and delivered his talents
September 4, 2020
This was my first book from Raymond Khoury.
Probably best to start from the beginning as it was a bit difficult to get into for the first few chapters.
It did get better and it was a fast paced thriller with plenty of action.
The characters were good. The characters were good. Interesting and diverse.
Overall a pretty good read, but not really my cup of tea.
Probably best to start from the beginning as it was a bit difficult to get into for the first few chapters.
It did get better and it was a fast paced thriller with plenty of action.
The characters were good. The characters were good. Interesting and diverse.
Overall a pretty good read, but not really my cup of tea.
February 8, 2018
Okay, I have really liked Khoury's other novels but this writing was completely improbable and not realistic at all. Cops killing cops outright with no repercussions etc. Could not get into the story because of all the unreal things that happened. I really tried to like this book but could not.
May 31, 2019
I’ve read all of Raymond’s books and loved all of them except this one.
I couldn’t get into it like I did with all his other books, all of which have been outstanding!
This book seemed to miss the mark for me. I’m sure others liked it. Raymond is an outstanding writer.
I couldn’t get into it like I did with all his other books, all of which have been outstanding!
This book seemed to miss the mark for me. I’m sure others liked it. Raymond is an outstanding writer.
June 28, 2019
From a great series of a couple that fought for life and love have been separated these past 2 books. And the conclusion of this story line was very anti climactic. But still a good 4 stars. Because I still enjoyed 95% of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2021
Nothing about Templars in this book but a very good murder mystery anyway. Yet another story about corrupt officials in the US alphabet agencies and a vengeful agent whose family has been wronged. Good reading and an engaging story.
June 23, 2017
And no.
July 5, 2017
A very good book, easy to read and very thrilling right to the end. Well worth reading.
August 2, 2017
another good read no pun intended it has its slow parts the characters are well developed. That is important to me as it gets me more into the book. Well worth the read
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