Good read, moves along quickly. Khoury proffers a unique Templar secret and a subsequent Vatican cover-up that, if revealed , would change Christiandom forever.

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This was along the same plot line as the Da Vinci Code...but this was way more entertaining! I'd recommend it to anyone who likes this type of story.

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I think the pop fiction genre has too many action thrillers revolving about a museum employee who has as special interest in a stolen artifact. Then toss in a cop or two, and a heavy dose of anything Vatican. A lot of running around to find then end of the puzzle. I got a third into the book then had to stop. I don't know what the "it" is nor do I want to. Easy to skim this book, quite pedestrian. I'm so glad I did not pay full price.

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Yet another insipid entry into the "make me into a movie!" thriller/romance genre. Even the "shocking" surprise is a bore- yet another religious conspiracy theory, and one that isn't even really fleshed out or explained. I suspect it was tamed down for the very purpose of avoiding any controvery should it be made into the movie it so desperately wishes to be. Go read James Patterson or even Dan Brown instead.

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In the genre of the Da Vinci Code, but with fewer cryptograms and more action. Kept me up 'way past my bedtime.
From back cover:
In 1291, a young templar knight flees the fallen Holy Land, and sets out to sea with a mysterious chest entrusted to him by the Order's dying grand master. The ship vanishes without a trace.
In present-day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights stage a bloody raid on the Metropolitan Museum of Art during an exhibit of Vatican treasures. Emerging with a strange geared device, they disappear into the night.
The investigation that follows draws an archaeologist and an FBI agent into the dark, hidden history of the crusading knights--and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers--as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Tamplars.

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One of my favorite books on conspiracy and involvements with our past.

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Yes, this book is very much influenced by the Da Vinci Code. And the "secret" hook is actually a fairly interesting hook. However it takes too long to reveal the secret and the characters that are on the "chase" for the secret are not very interesting.

It almost feels like a been there, done that. It doesn't help that there's no "ticking clock". The characters can search for the secret with no looming catastrophic deadline. Plus how the secret is handled at the end really disappointed me.

It's a fun book. But not really one that I would recommend over Angel and Demons, Da Vinci Code or any of Matthew Reilly's Jack West Jr books.

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Great book. Learned quit a bit of history reading it!

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've had this book for some time now, but hadn't picked it up to read it (actually, listen to the audio version) until recently I think the sheer size of the book written by an author I was unfamiliar with was intimidating.

I was acting foolish.

In "The Last Templar", Raymond Khoury effectively interweaves the historic tale of the Knights Templar with the historical fictionalized last days of that organization with a modern-day treasure hunt for something of great significance left behind by those Knights. The book begins (excepting a short preface) with a New York City exhibition of "The Treasures of the Vatican", and a spectacular on-camera robbery of same. The police find that their initial "Who did it" question metamorphasizes into "Why" and "Is there a third party involved in this effort"?

The story is enhanced by the tale of the last of the Knights Templar, attempting to safeguard an undescribed (until the end) treasure, along with a modern-day trip to Turkey and the Greek Islands. More interestingly, philosophical questions regarding the purpose of religion in today's world are also interspersed throughout the tale, with none of the character's viewpoints being strictly black or white or immutable.

I waited far too long to read this book. I will not wait nearly as long to pick up the second in the series.

RATING: 5 stars.

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Not quite up to snuff to the DaVinci Code, but definitely a worthy treasure hunt, thriller, love story of a read. I enjoyed the tension between the church and science. I liked Reilly and Tess-even though she annoyed me at times with her 'wanting to do right.' The story flips between present day and the 1200's which makes the read fast-paced. Can't wait to see what is in store for Reilly and Tess in book #2!

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This was originally written as a screenplay, and it reads like it. I did my usual reading of the beginning and the ending, it's readable, certainly better than James Rollins, but pretty putdownable (even reputdownable, when you try to start it again). Hits the right elements of ruthless Moslems (albeit 800 years ago - what were they doing in our Holy Land, anyway?) (However, the escape from the Middle East has echoes of the author's own escape when he was in his 20s) and of effete, naïve New York artistes.

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Not my cup of tea.
I was hoping for Historical Fiction. This is NOT that. It's light-beach-reading concerning Templar myths.
If you're into the Angels and Demons genre of ancient secret societies mingling with Biblical history, you'll love it.

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