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Templar #2
The Templar Salvation
From New York Times bestselling author Raymond Khoury comes a “a full-throttle action-adventure thriller” ( Library Journal ) that's even more shocking and explosive than The Last Templar …
Constantinople, 1203 : As the ravaging armies of the Fourth Crusade lay siege to the city, a secretive band of Templars infiltrate the imperial library. Their a cache of documents that must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Doge of Venice. They escape with three heavy chests, filled with explosive secrets that these men will not live long enough to learn...
Vatican City, present day : FBI agent Sean Reilly infiltrates the Pope's massive Vatican Secret Archives of the Inquisition. No one but the Pope's trusted secondi is allowed in--but Reilly has earned the Vatican's trust, a trust he has no choice but to violate. A vicious, uncompromising terrorist bent on revenge has kidnapped Tess Chaykin, and the key to her freedom lies in this underground crypt, in the form of a document known as the Fondo Templari —the secret history of the infamous Templars...
Constantinople, 1203 : As the ravaging armies of the Fourth Crusade lay siege to the city, a secretive band of Templars infiltrate the imperial library. Their a cache of documents that must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Doge of Venice. They escape with three heavy chests, filled with explosive secrets that these men will not live long enough to learn...
Vatican City, present day : FBI agent Sean Reilly infiltrates the Pope's massive Vatican Secret Archives of the Inquisition. No one but the Pope's trusted secondi is allowed in--but Reilly has earned the Vatican's trust, a trust he has no choice but to violate. A vicious, uncompromising terrorist bent on revenge has kidnapped Tess Chaykin, and the key to her freedom lies in this underground crypt, in the form of a document known as the Fondo Templari —the secret history of the infamous Templars...
572 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 19, 2010
317 people are currently reading
5918 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 412 reviews
April 15, 2021
The Templar Salvation is the second book I've read by Raymond Khoury, and it's the second in his Templar series about FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin. Set three years after the last book, we learn what happened to the couple and how they survived massive trauma. I've been drawn to archaeological thrillers this year, so I'm pushing through several series. While I enjoy the topics and Khoury's writing style, I'm not completely enamored with his plot development. I like them, but there are times when I think the story needs to be more realistic and complex. In this book, there are intriguing connections between the past and the present, and as readers, we get to play along to solve it, but it didn't draw me in enough.
What I do like about his books is how much history is incorporated. I'm fascinated by what's real and what's fictional, and it pushes me to research the characters and plots when I'm finished reading the book. The pages also fly by, and sometimes, when there is way too much detailed and repetitive descriptions, I skim a tad. The fight scenes almost always have three times as much drama as necessary. Give me one solid chase and near-death experience, and I'm happy. Show me the leads being beaten and stabbed and drugged five times in a book, and I start to tune out. I'll definitely continue to read more to see how the five-book series pulls from history. Constantinople, Turkish beliefs, and modern-day clergy on the run kept me reading this time... and next time it looks like a secret drug. Any other fans?
What I do like about his books is how much history is incorporated. I'm fascinated by what's real and what's fictional, and it pushes me to research the characters and plots when I'm finished reading the book. The pages also fly by, and sometimes, when there is way too much detailed and repetitive descriptions, I skim a tad. The fight scenes almost always have three times as much drama as necessary. Give me one solid chase and near-death experience, and I'm happy. Show me the leads being beaten and stabbed and drugged five times in a book, and I start to tune out. I'll definitely continue to read more to see how the five-book series pulls from history. Constantinople, Turkish beliefs, and modern-day clergy on the run kept me reading this time... and next time it looks like a secret drug. Any other fans?
February 5, 2020
A generic Vatikan thriller with expected content.
Full of action and suspenseful moves, but totally predictable and in my eyes rather uninteresting.
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Ein Vatikanthriller wie aus der Schablone, actionreich und spannend, aber auch oberflächlich und voller Klischees.
Der westliche Held (US-Amerikaner) bekämpft mit Zähnen und Klauen den muslimischen Schurken (Iraner). Die Frau, die den Helden liebt, kommt natürlich auch vor und muss regelmäßig errettet werden.
Man muss dem Buch jedoch zugute halten, dass, obwohl der Gute unglaublich gutherzig und der Böse unendlich bösartig ist, die Geschichte eine Motivation für das hasserfüllte Verhalten des Iraners aufweist, und auch dem Amerikaner durchaus bewusst ist, dass seine Regierung auch nicht immer mit einer weißen Weste daher kommt.
Trotzdem war mir die Story zu vorhersehbar und wie schon in vielen ähnlichen Variationen gelesen und gesehen.
Aus meiner Sicht 2 Sterne, da es jemandem ohne Vatikan-Thriller Erfahrung durchaus gefallen könnte.
Full of action and suspenseful moves, but totally predictable and in my eyes rather uninteresting.
----------------------------------------------
Ein Vatikanthriller wie aus der Schablone, actionreich und spannend, aber auch oberflächlich und voller Klischees.
Der westliche Held (US-Amerikaner) bekämpft mit Zähnen und Klauen den muslimischen Schurken (Iraner). Die Frau, die den Helden liebt, kommt natürlich auch vor und muss regelmäßig errettet werden.
Man muss dem Buch jedoch zugute halten, dass, obwohl der Gute unglaublich gutherzig und der Böse unendlich bösartig ist, die Geschichte eine Motivation für das hasserfüllte Verhalten des Iraners aufweist, und auch dem Amerikaner durchaus bewusst ist, dass seine Regierung auch nicht immer mit einer weißen Weste daher kommt.
Trotzdem war mir die Story zu vorhersehbar und wie schon in vielen ähnlichen Variationen gelesen und gesehen.
Aus meiner Sicht 2 Sterne, da es jemandem ohne Vatikan-Thriller Erfahrung durchaus gefallen könnte.
January 8, 2012
Question: Has Raymond Khoury ever been introduced to an editor?
Answer: Apparently not, as evidenced by his latest novel, "The Templar Salvation."
Overall, the book was a fun read, if you're looking for something to fit into your "beach/plane ride fodder" category. But it could have EASILY been chopped down by 100 pages or so. I don't mind long books. Not at all. But I mind them when they become mind-numbingly boring and force me to skim. I don't want to skim. I want to read. That's the whole point of books, right?
The plot was decent. It definitely fits into the historical/religious thriller genre that's always enjoyable. The characters are OK, even though the main character, Tess, has this frustrating habit of using the word "dufus" in a manner that Khoury has obviously mistaken for charming. And the format is even endearing, in that fun and predictable way (ie. What?!? The villain returned from near death yet again?!? Oh, and the good guy wins against all odds?!?). But seriously, the chase scenes and the fight scenes were laborious. Quick tip: If you want suspense in your thriller, keep the pace moving. The pace does not move when a two minute fight stretches throughout 20 pages.
All of that whining aside, this was a fun read. But then again, aren't most Templar thrillers??
Answer: Apparently not, as evidenced by his latest novel, "The Templar Salvation."
Overall, the book was a fun read, if you're looking for something to fit into your "beach/plane ride fodder" category. But it could have EASILY been chopped down by 100 pages or so. I don't mind long books. Not at all. But I mind them when they become mind-numbingly boring and force me to skim. I don't want to skim. I want to read. That's the whole point of books, right?
The plot was decent. It definitely fits into the historical/religious thriller genre that's always enjoyable. The characters are OK, even though the main character, Tess, has this frustrating habit of using the word "dufus" in a manner that Khoury has obviously mistaken for charming. And the format is even endearing, in that fun and predictable way (ie. What?!? The villain returned from near death yet again?!? Oh, and the good guy wins against all odds?!?). But seriously, the chase scenes and the fight scenes were laborious. Quick tip: If you want suspense in your thriller, keep the pace moving. The pace does not move when a two minute fight stretches throughout 20 pages.
All of that whining aside, this was a fun read. But then again, aren't most Templar thrillers??
July 10, 2012
I think that this book and its predecessor, The Last Templar, should really be called How Many Priceless Historical Artifacts and Documents Can We Irresponsibly Destroy?. Seriously, this is ridiculous.
December 4, 2010
That author Raymond Khoury is an excellent storyteller is no surprise. He has demonstrated his skills in this regard amply over the course of the three novels he released prior to his latest one, "The Templar Salvation." What surprises about "The Templar Salvation" is that it's even better than the immensely enjoyable novel to which it's a sequel, "The Last Templar."
"The Templar Salvation" mesmerizes for a variety of reasons, but it's difficult to list any of them above the intricate historical, geographical, and sociocultural research he weaves together to create the vivid settings where his characters toil. Khoury is masterful at imbibing his story with richness of time and place both ancient and modern, inviting all his readers' senses to experience the ceaseless action and twisting plot right along with the characters.
"The Templar Salvation" also treats readers to Khoury's magnificent pacing. He puts readers in the rare and enviable position of requiring gargantuan effort to stop turning the pages before the novel's end.
Khoury's writing is frequently and favorably associated with the best work of the estimable Dan Brown and Steve Berry. "The Templar Salvation" lands Khoury squarely among the ranks of today's preeminent thriller authors, and calls to mind the writing of Lee Child, Vince Flynn, and David Baldacci.
"The Templar Salvation" mesmerizes for a variety of reasons, but it's difficult to list any of them above the intricate historical, geographical, and sociocultural research he weaves together to create the vivid settings where his characters toil. Khoury is masterful at imbibing his story with richness of time and place both ancient and modern, inviting all his readers' senses to experience the ceaseless action and twisting plot right along with the characters.
"The Templar Salvation" also treats readers to Khoury's magnificent pacing. He puts readers in the rare and enviable position of requiring gargantuan effort to stop turning the pages before the novel's end.
Khoury's writing is frequently and favorably associated with the best work of the estimable Dan Brown and Steve Berry. "The Templar Salvation" lands Khoury squarely among the ranks of today's preeminent thriller authors, and calls to mind the writing of Lee Child, Vince Flynn, and David Baldacci.
December 16, 2010
Decent, for a standard Templars-have-a-secret-that-will-destroy-Christianity thriller. I usually enjoy these, because I have a different interest in the Knights Templar, but the "secrets" for each tale, from Knight & Lomas's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" through Mr. Dan Brown's best-selling, but woefully fanciful, tomes, and all his imitators, evince a terrible dearth of real scholarship into church history, the formation of the canon, the Council of Nicaea, etc. I mention this only because so many people do take Brown and others at face value when they say, 'the "history" on which this novel is based is real.' Horsefeathers.
Of course, read as adventure/thriller novels, they do provide some pleasant diversion (not Brown, for me, though. His writing leaves me cold.). Khoury's book here, the only one I've read, satisfies in that way.
Of course, read as adventure/thriller novels, they do provide some pleasant diversion (not Brown, for me, though. His writing leaves me cold.). Khoury's book here, the only one I've read, satisfies in that way.
January 29, 2018
Fun read. Initially it was not obvious that the main characters were the same from the previous book (super sharp readers I am sure caught that). This is a chase for stuff the Templar's might have found of interest. The story gets extended past believability a few times but over all is a good read.
March 23, 2020
brief synopsis:
What do you get when you cross an archaeologist-turned-novelist, her FBI agent lover, and a disgruntled Iranian bomber with the Knights Templar?
setting:
Constantinople
Istanbul, Turkey
Vatican City
L'Aquila, Italy
Cappadocia
Nicaea, Roman province of Bythinia
Konya, Turkey
Rhodes, Greece
named personalities:
Everard of Tyre - a Templar knight
the Keeper - a grizzled man
Innocent - the 1203 pope
Alexius - a usurper
Theophilus - the youngest of the three Keepers
Odo of Ridefort - another Templar knight, an ox of a man
Saladin - a Kurdish Muslim who led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant
Philippicus - the undetectable monastery's hegumen (abbot)
Behrouz Sharafi - a forty-seven-year-old Iranian historian
Deborah - Behrouz's daughter's favorite teacher at school
Farnaz - Behrouz's daughter
Sean Reilly aka Clark 'Clarkie'* - an FBI special agent in charge heading up the New York City field office's Domestic Terrorism Unit
Tess Chaykin aka Yoda - a lapsed archaeologist, now a novelist
Mansoor Zahed aka Behrouz 'Ali' Sharafi - the Vatican bomber
Mauro Brugnone - the Vatican's secretary of state; a broad-shouldered cardinal
Francesco Bescondi - the prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives; a slight man with thinning hair and a tightly-cropped goatee
Gianni Delpiero - the inspector general of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the Vatican's police force; a tall man with a solid brush of black hair and hard, angular features
Nick Aparo - Sean's partner with an ebullient voice
Jansson - Sean and Nick's boss
Domenico Scandella - a relatively insignificant sixteenth-century miller who couldn't keep his mouth shut
Lucia Dos Santos - the seer of Fatima
Jed Simmons aka Ted Chaykin - Tess' friend; an American historian
Kim - Tess' thirteen-year-old daughter
Hazel - Tess' older sister in Arizona
Eileen - Tess' mother
Clive Edmondson - Tess' old friend
Al Capone - an American gangster and businessman
Jesus Christ - a first-century Jewish preacher
Doug Tilden - the FBI legal attache in Rome; a tall man with combed-back graying hair and sleek, frameless glasses
Brown - Tess and Jed' acquaintance, possibly Jed's boss
Mawlana Jelaluddin Rumi - a 13th-century Persian poet; one of Sufism's founding fathers
Conrad of Tripoli - another Templar knight
Philip - the fifth apostle; a saint
Baldwin - Constantinople's first Latin emperor
Michael VIII - the Byzantine emperor who retook Constantinople in 1261
Aladdin - a fictional hero of a Middle Eastern folk tale who was trapped in a cave of holy relics
Mary - Jesus' virgin mother
Qassem - a brooding, muscular Turk
Mehmet - Qassem's father; a tub of fat, hairy flesh, a dumpling of a man with a wide forehead, bulging eyes, and a short, thick neck; a consumate trader
Maysoon - Qassem's sister
Hector of Montfort - a French Templar knight
Miguel of Tortosa - a Spanish Templar knight
Nicodemus - a withered old abbot
Philip - a 1307 king
Bragg - presumably Sean's parish priest
Bernini - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, an Italian sculptor and architect
Vance - that man
Adami - P Adami, the executor of the monumental mosaic the Altar of the Lie
Peter - a saint
Plato - an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece
Hermes - a deity in Ancient Greek religion and mythology
Ptolemy - a Greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer
Baphomet - a deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping
Hitler - Adolf Hitler, a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party who was obsessed with occultism
Mussolini - Benito Mussolini, an Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party
Julius Evola - Benito's pretty nutty personal occultist
Bennie Steyl - a South African pilot; a tall, sinewy, bearded man with slicked-back ginger hair and deep-set gray eyes
Vedat Ertugrul - the legal attache of the Bureau's Istanbul suboffice; a paunchy American of Turkish descent with a trumpet player's jowls and puffy crescents under his eyes
Alexios - the grand archimandrite of the Apostolic** Library
Khomeini - Ruhollah 'Ayatollah' Khomeini, an Iranian revolutionary, politician, and cleric who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Suleyman Izzettin - a police captain
Murat Celikbilek - a Turkish officer from the Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT aka the National Intelligence Organization)
Francis Gary Powers - an American pilot who caused the 1960 U-2 incident
Suleyman 'Sully' Toprak - a guide; a gregarious man in his late twenties with a thick man of long, black hair that was parted in the middle and a geometric goatee that looked like it had been chiseled into place
Basil - a saint
Nimrod - the first king after the great flood
Noah - Nimrod's great grandfather who labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command
Abdulkerim - Sully's Byzantinist uncle; a tourist guide who used to be a professor at a university in Ankara
Musa Keskin - a captain of the Turkish Gendarmeria's Ozel Jandarma Komando Bolugu, the Special Forces Unit
Popeye - a fictional muscular American sailor
Tiger Woods - an American professional golfer
Corinne Bailey Rae - a British musician
Paul of Tarsus - a saint who preached throughout Cappadocia just twenty years after the Crucifixion
Basil the Great - a Kayseri bishop, one of the so-called 'Cappadocian Fathers'
Constantine the Great - a Roman emperor
Helen - Constantine's mother; a saint
Thomas - one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles
Matthew - ditto
Mark - one of the Four Evangelists
Luke - ditto
John - ditto
Hosius of Spain - imperial commissioner and confessor to Constantine; the bishop of Cordoba; one of the Church's founding fathers
Dali - Salvador Dalí, a Spanish surrealist artist
Mohamed Mosaddegh - an Iranian prime minister
Sam - Sean's uncle
Bush Senior - George HW Bush, an American politician who was vice president during the early 1980s
Reagan - Ronald Reagan, an American politician who was president during the early 1980s
Satan - the Devil
Cotton Malone*** - Sean's friend who left he service and moved to Copenhagen to open an antique bookshop
Arius - a Libyan presbyter and ascetic
Athanasius - Athanasius of Alexandria, the 20th bishop of Alexandria
Sabellius - a third-century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, but may have been a North African from Libya
Thomas - a bishop of Marash who was tortured
Sylvester I - a bishop of Rome who was unable to attend the Council of Nicaea
Apollo - one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology
Maxentius - a Roman emperor; Constantine's brother-in-law
Solomon - a biblical king
Sarah Jessica Parker - an American actress who alledgedly does her aerobics to rock 'n' roll versions of Rumi's poems
Kemal Ataturk - the father of modern Turkey
Levant - Iconium Tours' owner; a gregarious man in his early fifties
Hakan Kazzazoglu - presumably the owner of Kismet Carpets and Kilims
Hughes de Payens - one of the first nine Templar knights
Rich Burston - Vedat's boos; the FBI legat in Ankara
*I, sadly, do not get the reference.
**I'm not sure if this is correct, haha.
***A fictional character created by Steve Berry. Apparently, Raymond and Steve are pals, along with a few other authors like James Czajkowski (Rollins), and would sometimes have their characters cross over to the other's works.
terminology:
p50: He blinked, mashing his teeth raw, finding it hard to resist jsut pummeling the guy.
p226: He held the gun barrel there, hovering millimeters from Abdulkerim's eyes.
ocr:
p104: TILDEN DROOOED REILLY AND TESS at the Sofitel, a discreet mid-sized hotel the embassy frequently used for visitors.
p116: THE BUZZ OF A TELEOHONE jolted his senses with the velvet touch of a taser and yanked him out of a dreamless sleep that had eluded him for hours.
p202: TESS HEARD THE EXOLOSION and jumped.
p286: ZAHED CREOT FORWARD, following the cabling, his trained senses alert for the smallest sign of life.
p287: ZAHED BOUNCED OFF THE STONE OILLAR and went down like a rag doll.
p291: REILLY OULLED HER TIGHTLY AGAINST HIM, away from the opening she'd just burst through.
p320: "SEAN, WAKE UO."
p352: REILLY GAVE AOARO THE LOWDOWN on what they were going to do and set up a vague lead story for his partner to give their boss.
I don't fully understand why what happened happened, but the water's fine (more than, I suppose) and I'm glad to have jumped in.
What do you get when you cross an archaeologist-turned-novelist, her FBI agent lover, and a disgruntled Iranian bomber with the Knights Templar?
setting:
Constantinople
Istanbul, Turkey
Vatican City
L'Aquila, Italy
Cappadocia
Nicaea, Roman province of Bythinia
Konya, Turkey
Rhodes, Greece
named personalities:
Everard of Tyre - a Templar knight
the Keeper - a grizzled man
Innocent - the 1203 pope
Alexius - a usurper
Theophilus - the youngest of the three Keepers
Odo of Ridefort - another Templar knight, an ox of a man
Saladin - a Kurdish Muslim who led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant
Philippicus - the undetectable monastery's hegumen (abbot)
Behrouz Sharafi - a forty-seven-year-old Iranian historian
Deborah - Behrouz's daughter's favorite teacher at school
Farnaz - Behrouz's daughter
Sean Reilly aka Clark 'Clarkie'* - an FBI special agent in charge heading up the New York City field office's Domestic Terrorism Unit
Tess Chaykin aka Yoda - a lapsed archaeologist, now a novelist
Mansoor Zahed aka Behrouz 'Ali' Sharafi - the Vatican bomber
Mauro Brugnone - the Vatican's secretary of state; a broad-shouldered cardinal
Francesco Bescondi - the prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives; a slight man with thinning hair and a tightly-cropped goatee
Gianni Delpiero - the inspector general of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the Vatican's police force; a tall man with a solid brush of black hair and hard, angular features
Nick Aparo - Sean's partner with an ebullient voice
Jansson - Sean and Nick's boss
Domenico Scandella - a relatively insignificant sixteenth-century miller who couldn't keep his mouth shut
Lucia Dos Santos - the seer of Fatima
Jed Simmons aka Ted Chaykin - Tess' friend; an American historian
Kim - Tess' thirteen-year-old daughter
Hazel - Tess' older sister in Arizona
Eileen - Tess' mother
Clive Edmondson - Tess' old friend
Al Capone - an American gangster and businessman
Jesus Christ - a first-century Jewish preacher
Doug Tilden - the FBI legal attache in Rome; a tall man with combed-back graying hair and sleek, frameless glasses
Brown - Tess and Jed' acquaintance, possibly Jed's boss
Mawlana Jelaluddin Rumi - a 13th-century Persian poet; one of Sufism's founding fathers
Conrad of Tripoli - another Templar knight
Philip - the fifth apostle; a saint
Baldwin - Constantinople's first Latin emperor
Michael VIII - the Byzantine emperor who retook Constantinople in 1261
Aladdin - a fictional hero of a Middle Eastern folk tale who was trapped in a cave of holy relics
Mary - Jesus' virgin mother
Qassem - a brooding, muscular Turk
Mehmet - Qassem's father; a tub of fat, hairy flesh, a dumpling of a man with a wide forehead, bulging eyes, and a short, thick neck; a consumate trader
Maysoon - Qassem's sister
Hector of Montfort - a French Templar knight
Miguel of Tortosa - a Spanish Templar knight
Nicodemus - a withered old abbot
Philip - a 1307 king
Bragg - presumably Sean's parish priest
Bernini - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, an Italian sculptor and architect
Vance - that man
Adami - P Adami, the executor of the monumental mosaic the Altar of the Lie
Peter - a saint
Plato - an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece
Hermes - a deity in Ancient Greek religion and mythology
Ptolemy - a Greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer
Baphomet - a deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping
Hitler - Adolf Hitler, a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party who was obsessed with occultism
Mussolini - Benito Mussolini, an Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party
Julius Evola - Benito's pretty nutty personal occultist
Bennie Steyl - a South African pilot; a tall, sinewy, bearded man with slicked-back ginger hair and deep-set gray eyes
Vedat Ertugrul - the legal attache of the Bureau's Istanbul suboffice; a paunchy American of Turkish descent with a trumpet player's jowls and puffy crescents under his eyes
Alexios - the grand archimandrite of the Apostolic** Library
Khomeini - Ruhollah 'Ayatollah' Khomeini, an Iranian revolutionary, politician, and cleric who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Suleyman Izzettin - a police captain
Murat Celikbilek - a Turkish officer from the Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT aka the National Intelligence Organization)
Francis Gary Powers - an American pilot who caused the 1960 U-2 incident
Suleyman 'Sully' Toprak - a guide; a gregarious man in his late twenties with a thick man of long, black hair that was parted in the middle and a geometric goatee that looked like it had been chiseled into place
Basil - a saint
Nimrod - the first king after the great flood
Noah - Nimrod's great grandfather who labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command
Abdulkerim - Sully's Byzantinist uncle; a tourist guide who used to be a professor at a university in Ankara
Musa Keskin - a captain of the Turkish Gendarmeria's Ozel Jandarma Komando Bolugu, the Special Forces Unit
Popeye - a fictional muscular American sailor
Tiger Woods - an American professional golfer
Corinne Bailey Rae - a British musician
Paul of Tarsus - a saint who preached throughout Cappadocia just twenty years after the Crucifixion
Basil the Great - a Kayseri bishop, one of the so-called 'Cappadocian Fathers'
Constantine the Great - a Roman emperor
Helen - Constantine's mother; a saint
Thomas - one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles
Matthew - ditto
Mark - one of the Four Evangelists
Luke - ditto
John - ditto
Hosius of Spain - imperial commissioner and confessor to Constantine; the bishop of Cordoba; one of the Church's founding fathers
Dali - Salvador Dalí, a Spanish surrealist artist
Mohamed Mosaddegh - an Iranian prime minister
Sam - Sean's uncle
Bush Senior - George HW Bush, an American politician who was vice president during the early 1980s
Reagan - Ronald Reagan, an American politician who was president during the early 1980s
Satan - the Devil
Cotton Malone*** - Sean's friend who left he service and moved to Copenhagen to open an antique bookshop
Arius - a Libyan presbyter and ascetic
Athanasius - Athanasius of Alexandria, the 20th bishop of Alexandria
Sabellius - a third-century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, but may have been a North African from Libya
Thomas - a bishop of Marash who was tortured
Sylvester I - a bishop of Rome who was unable to attend the Council of Nicaea
Apollo - one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology
Maxentius - a Roman emperor; Constantine's brother-in-law
Solomon - a biblical king
Sarah Jessica Parker - an American actress who alledgedly does her aerobics to rock 'n' roll versions of Rumi's poems
Kemal Ataturk - the father of modern Turkey
Levant - Iconium Tours' owner; a gregarious man in his early fifties
Hakan Kazzazoglu - presumably the owner of Kismet Carpets and Kilims
Hughes de Payens - one of the first nine Templar knights
Rich Burston - Vedat's boos; the FBI legat in Ankara
*I, sadly, do not get the reference.
**I'm not sure if this is correct, haha.
***A fictional character created by Steve Berry. Apparently, Raymond and Steve are pals, along with a few other authors like James Czajkowski (Rollins), and would sometimes have their characters cross over to the other's works.
terminology:
p50: He blinked, mashing his teeth raw, finding it hard to resist jsut pummeling the guy.
p226: He held the gun barrel there, hovering millimeters from Abdulkerim's eyes.
ocr:
p104: TILDEN DROOOED REILLY AND TESS at the Sofitel, a discreet mid-sized hotel the embassy frequently used for visitors.
p116: THE BUZZ OF A TELEOHONE jolted his senses with the velvet touch of a taser and yanked him out of a dreamless sleep that had eluded him for hours.
p202: TESS HEARD THE EXOLOSION and jumped.
p286: ZAHED CREOT FORWARD, following the cabling, his trained senses alert for the smallest sign of life.
p287: ZAHED BOUNCED OFF THE STONE OILLAR and went down like a rag doll.
p291: REILLY OULLED HER TIGHTLY AGAINST HIM, away from the opening she'd just burst through.
p320: "SEAN, WAKE UO."
p352: REILLY GAVE AOARO THE LOWDOWN on what they were going to do and set up a vague lead story for his partner to give their boss.
I don't fully understand why what happened happened, but the water's fine (more than, I suppose) and I'm glad to have jumped in.
January 22, 2012
I read the book The Templar Salvation, by Raymond Khoury. This is a sequel of the New York Times best seller The Last Templar. A book that incorporates ancient history in a 21st century setting. A book with suspense and action as well as information about the Templar Knights and their down fall. Sean Reilly an FBI agent meets Tess Chaykin an archeologist who specializes in the Templar Knights. The book starts with Reilly and an undercover terrorist in the Vatican they infiltrate the Vatican Secret Archives and steal, a document unread for centuries, known as Fondo Templari. Finally, Reilly finds out that the guy next to him is an undercover terrorist who has kidnapped Tess, Reilly’s girlfriend. The only way to get her freedom is to give him the document. Now, Reilly and Tess need to find the terrorist and the document, which could have very colossal implications in the twenty-first century. The New York Times says “Khoury’s novel features age-old mysteries that play out in a modern setting.
October 19, 2012
Raymond Khoury's right up there with Dan Brown when it comes to convincingly-crafted, religious artifact-debunking tales of action, evil and adventure. Probably the biggest difference between the two is that Khoury tends toward more exotic locales and his hero, Sean Reilly, is an FBI agent rather than a professorial type. "The Templar Salvation" plunges Reilly into a tense hunt for ancient manuscripts believed spirited to a Turkish burial by rogue Templar knights in the 13th century. Reilly at first sets out to rescue his archaeologist girlfriend Tess Chaykin, captured and concealed by an Iranian terrorist type who is effectively in a race with Reilly to find the tomes that you're led to believe will set Christianity on its ear. Khoury does a masterful job making the reader believe it's all true and there's absolutely enough murder, mayhem and sabotage to entertain even the most avid conspiracy theorists. "The Templar Salvation" is an honestly fun ride and won't disappoint.
January 18, 2011
I love Raymond Khoury's books - they are definitely page turners! This book was a quick and easy read. The action was fast-paced and there was never a lull in the story. The locations around the Mediterrean countries made for a very interesting story, and the history added in was icing on the cake.
June 16, 2016
It was the book that wouldn't end. Had someone edited about 100 pages out of this book, mostly taking out the lectures, it would have moved along more swiftly and made it an enjoyable suspense quest novel.
Not sure if the reference to Berry's Cotton Malone was indicating some future collaboration or simply acknowledging a similar readership and of course the very similarly titled prior efforts by both authors which were released very close to one another (The Templar Legacy by Berry, and The Last Templar by Khoury).
In this work, Khoury revives two characters from his Last Templar novel and again sets them in motion to hunt down a bad guy who is seeking ancient religious texts. Tess Chaykin is at a dig when she and others are kidnapped. A call is made to FBI agent Sean Reilly who travels to Rome to help her.
It is soon apparent that the 'bad guy' is a very bad guy who finds bombs to be a good security tool.
From Rome the chase leads to Turkey, where the bulk of the story takes place.
It turns out that the prize are a set of books from the Council of Nicea, that were written in the earliest days of Christianity, but didn't make it into the official church Cannon, and were to have been destroyed, but weren't. These texts were used by the Templars to gain concessions from the Pope in exchange for keeping them secret. During the siege of Constantinople the books were removed and lost once again. The bad guy has hopes to bring down christianity with them.
This book could have been better, it had action, but that was too often broken up with lectures. The story drug on longer than need be, and made me want to finish because of my investment in time rather than my desire to turn the page for the sake of the story.
Not sure if the reference to Berry's Cotton Malone was indicating some future collaboration or simply acknowledging a similar readership and of course the very similarly titled prior efforts by both authors which were released very close to one another (The Templar Legacy by Berry, and The Last Templar by Khoury).
In this work, Khoury revives two characters from his Last Templar novel and again sets them in motion to hunt down a bad guy who is seeking ancient religious texts. Tess Chaykin is at a dig when she and others are kidnapped. A call is made to FBI agent Sean Reilly who travels to Rome to help her.
It is soon apparent that the 'bad guy' is a very bad guy who finds bombs to be a good security tool.
From Rome the chase leads to Turkey, where the bulk of the story takes place.
It turns out that the prize are a set of books from the Council of Nicea, that were written in the earliest days of Christianity, but didn't make it into the official church Cannon, and were to have been destroyed, but weren't. These texts were used by the Templars to gain concessions from the Pope in exchange for keeping them secret. During the siege of Constantinople the books were removed and lost once again. The bad guy has hopes to bring down christianity with them.
This book could have been better, it had action, but that was too often broken up with lectures. The story drug on longer than need be, and made me want to finish because of my investment in time rather than my desire to turn the page for the sake of the story.
December 7, 2014
I found this a very negative book towards Christianity. I also did not find that the writer was very familiar with how people act nor react when confronted with situations...obviously a different upbringing. I liked his writing in the "past" when he would bring up history...but that is it. I will not read any more of his writings.
May 2, 2012
„The Templar Salvation“ liest sich an manchen Stellen wie ein rasanter Thriller. Man kann sich die Verfolgungsjagen nur zu gut auf der Leinwand vorstellen. Etwas, was dem Autor in seiner Profession als Drehbuchautor sicherlich auch zu Gute kommt. Zwar sind die Szenen an manchen Stellen so übertrieben, dass sie kaum realistisch nachvollziehbar sind, steigern aber damit doch den Charakter des Thrillers. Wir treffen Reilly und Tess in einer mehr als unangenehmen Situation. Eigentlich gerade getrennt, wusste Tess sich keinen weiteren Rat und rief Reilly an. Ein Anruf, der Dinge in Bewegung setzt, die Reilly beinahe seinen Job und sie beide auch noch fast das Leben kosten. Denn Tess wurde entführt und mit ihr auch noch zwei andere Wissenschaftler. Tess und ihr Kollege, weil sie Experten auf ihrem Gebiet sind und der andere Wissenschaftler, weil er auf Texte gestoßen ist, die das Interesse einer radikalen Organisation erweckt haben. Und so findet sich Agent Reilly wieder auf der Jagd nach einem Verbrecher und um ihn fassen zu können und seine Beweggründe verstehen zu können, muss das Geheimnis der letzten Reise des Templers Conrad gelüftet werden. Das Buch hat mir auch genau das geboten, was ich erwartet habe. Spannung, eine interessante Beziehung zwischen den Hauptcharakteren und ein sich durchziehender Spannungsbogen in der Handlung.
August 21, 2014
An absolutely mediocre story with predictable plot lines. Mr Khoury could have greatly benefited by letting an editor go through this book prior to it getting published. The antagonists name changed from one spelling to another several times in the book. (Mansoor to Mansour) The first time the spelling changed, I thought it was just a printing error, then it happened a few more times, that can't be a printing error. Several times in the book, words were used that would make someone go dig out a dictionary to find the meanings, then sentences and statements that made it seem like the author believed that an idiot was reading the book. Example, when talking about how well the antagonists airplane pilot knew his job..."he was a pilot you could trust not to land you in hot water, metaphorically speaking." The story, in my opinion, could have had about 50 to 75 pages shaved off and been just fine. It seemed to drag on a bit too long at the end of the book. If you are looking for a quick and easy read for a beach vacation, this is a good book to choose. If you are wanting something more engaging, look elsewhere.
December 1, 2010
I quite enjoyed The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury, published in October, 2010. Though I have not read any other of Khoury’s books, The Templar Salvation can easily be read on its own.
Set in the present, with flashbacks to the age of the Knights of Templar, this novel by Raymond Khoury is easy to follow and has a great plot. As I read and turned pages, The Templar Salvation grabbed my attention more and more and I just had to keep reading!
Well written, with a great plot, climax and ending, The Templar Salvation was a great read!!
I received this book for free to review as a “First Read’ of Librarything. I am a member of Librarything, Goodreads, Bookdivas and the Penguin book club.
DBettenson
Set in the present, with flashbacks to the age of the Knights of Templar, this novel by Raymond Khoury is easy to follow and has a great plot. As I read and turned pages, The Templar Salvation grabbed my attention more and more and I just had to keep reading!
Well written, with a great plot, climax and ending, The Templar Salvation was a great read!!
I received this book for free to review as a “First Read’ of Librarything. I am a member of Librarything, Goodreads, Bookdivas and the Penguin book club.
DBettenson
December 23, 2011
Wow I loved this book. I love a good Templar yarn and I was not disappointed by that of Conrad and Maysoon. The back drop story was just as exciting as the present day story. Rielly and Tess worked well as a couple for me. The protagonist Zahed was very believable. You can almost see his point. We as a country (USA) kind of did create the beast that is our current day Moslem Extremism. So in point of factual history are displyed and brought out. Even Reilly can understand Zahed's anger. In closing I thought this book was an excellent read and full of adventure and suspense. The backround charactors were believable. Way to go Mr.Khoury,I look forward to the next book in the Reilly/Chaykin series. PS.There is a Cotton Malone mention. (Steve Berry's) charactor.
January 17, 2015
A Page-Turning Thriller
This is the first time I am reading this author’s work, which held my attention from beginning to end. Behrouz Sharafi, an Iranian Professor is approached by a menacing stranger to find a secret document, which is housed in and protected by the Vatican. Protagonist Sean Reilly, an FBI agent, is asked to help Sharafi find that document or someone will be killed. Covering Turkey, Iran, Jordan and the Vatican, the author links early history with present day occurrences, where the scenario builds up to an international conspiracy involving a relentless Reilly tracking down an extremist, building up to kidnappings, chaos, treachery and murder. With so many twists and turns, this story is an intriguing read with an unexpected ending.
This is the first time I am reading this author’s work, which held my attention from beginning to end. Behrouz Sharafi, an Iranian Professor is approached by a menacing stranger to find a secret document, which is housed in and protected by the Vatican. Protagonist Sean Reilly, an FBI agent, is asked to help Sharafi find that document or someone will be killed. Covering Turkey, Iran, Jordan and the Vatican, the author links early history with present day occurrences, where the scenario builds up to an international conspiracy involving a relentless Reilly tracking down an extremist, building up to kidnappings, chaos, treachery and murder. With so many twists and turns, this story is an intriguing read with an unexpected ending.
November 20, 2010
Hard to put down. When the armies of the Fourth Crusade are beseiging Constantinople in 1203, a small group of Templars make their way into the imperial library where they acquire three trunks full of ancient documents. These documents were greatly change the views of the Church at that time, so they are carefully hidden and are lost for centuries. In the present day, archaeologist Tess Chaykin and Sean Reilly, an FBI agent are looking for them, as well as an Iranian terrorist who wants to use them against the Western world. The story goes back and forth in time and I especially enjoyed the historical details.
January 14, 2014
Wow, this author sure knows how to write a story with close to non-stop action, and a rock-solid storyline. He knows how to create memorable characters and really good bad guys.
The Templar Salvation stars the same two main characters as the first book, the Last Templar, and they've got great chemistry. Tess is a head-strong and determined archeologist and Reilly is an awesome FBI Special Agent who knows how to kick some butt. They're in the thick of it again and traveling the world to find the treasure and beat the bad guy!
Great stuff, fast read! Highly recommended for lots of entertainment.
The Templar Salvation stars the same two main characters as the first book, the Last Templar, and they've got great chemistry. Tess is a head-strong and determined archeologist and Reilly is an awesome FBI Special Agent who knows how to kick some butt. They're in the thick of it again and traveling the world to find the treasure and beat the bad guy!
Great stuff, fast read! Highly recommended for lots of entertainment.
October 27, 2010
This book is a true plot continuation of it's predecessor "The Last Templar". Other books in this genre are often only a "series" because they involve the same main character(s) while the plots do not relate to each other at all. But this is a true sequel (which means the first book really needs to be read first). At first, when I realized this, I thought it felt like just a rehash of the first book. After all, the first one was wrapped up pretty nicely in the end, how could there be anything more to elaborate on in a sequel? But by the end of it, I was one again wowed.
September 26, 2024
I am always intrigued by books about the Knights Templar. Who were these Knights and what was their purpose? Raymond Khoury has a lot of historical facts in this book along with a fictional story revolving around FBI Agent Sean Reilly and his girlfriend Tess Chaykin. In this book, they are battling a fanatical Iranian for access to ancient scrolls which could cause much confusion in the Christian world. The book keeps you turning pages from the ancient world of Conrad, one of the last Templars, to present day in Turkey. A very good book.
December 14, 2012
I really enjoyed this book, but was a little disappointed in the way it ended. I would have liked to know what was written in the journals they found. The ending was much the same as The Last Templar. Both finds were destroyed without knowing what was written...leaving the reader to wonder & speculate. While I understand the reasoning, I would have enjoyed a little different ending in The Templar Salvation. Still, it was good, kept me interested & the pages turning.
March 27, 2017
The Templar Salvation is set three years after the events of The Last Templar.
It's of the same type of genre & vague plot, being the Templars have a secret and if it comes to light it'll destroy the Church/Christianity so someone wants it. It's well written and has a nice mix of past events, present action and a terrorist eager to damage Christianity to avenge his parents deaths.
A real page turner. Once you start it's hard to put down.
It's of the same type of genre & vague plot, being the Templars have a secret and if it comes to light it'll destroy the Church/Christianity so someone wants it. It's well written and has a nice mix of past events, present action and a terrorist eager to damage Christianity to avenge his parents deaths.
A real page turner. Once you start it's hard to put down.
February 1, 2011
Raymond Khoury has done it again! Every bit as exciting as The Last Templar and The Sanctuary, The Templar Salvation is nothing but intensity from the beginning.
Many thanks to goodreads.com, Dutton, and Mr. Khoury for allowing me to have had the opportunity to read the advance copy of this novel. It's incredibly difficult to put down!
Many thanks to goodreads.com, Dutton, and Mr. Khoury for allowing me to have had the opportunity to read the advance copy of this novel. It's incredibly difficult to put down!
February 9, 2013
This book would make a great action movie! It is a sequel to "The Last Templar" in name only. The main characters in "Last" reappear here, and they are still investigating the history of the Templar Knights, but the story lines are completely independent. There is a driving plot that involves danger, intrigue, & exotic locales. It's a page turner! I read it in two days.
May 19, 2015
Book number 15 for #read26fw !!!
Pretty predictable, not really any surprises. However, I really enjoyed reading it. If you can imagine a collaboration between Jack Reacher and Robert Langdon then you have an idea of how the protagonists FBI agent Sean Riley and anthropologist Tess Chaykin interact. Mindless entertainment, exactly right for summer reading.
Pretty predictable, not really any surprises. However, I really enjoyed reading it. If you can imagine a collaboration between Jack Reacher and Robert Langdon then you have an idea of how the protagonists FBI agent Sean Riley and anthropologist Tess Chaykin interact. Mindless entertainment, exactly right for summer reading.
December 10, 2010
Loved this sequel to the first one. Fast-paced and steeped in mystery. And I thought it was cool that khoury gave a nod to Steve Berry's Cotton Malone who is one of my all-time favorite characters. Good read :)
February 24, 2011
Not good. The only redeeming factor is the history summaries were clear and accurate, but as for the narrative...painful to read, with no character development. Kept wanting to give up but thought i might as well slog it out to the unsurprising end before returning to library asap.
March 28, 2011
I enjoyed this book.It was an easy read thanks to the authors ability to keep up a good pace and making it a thrilling ride.I was surprised that he mentioned another authors character even if it was in passing.I think this was a first for me.Read this and find out who he mentions.
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