Peter Crossman is a Templar, a Knight of the Inner Temple, defending modern America against ancient evil. You thought the Templars were wiped out by Philip the Fair in the fourteenth century? No, they just went underground, and continued the good work. They now mainly handle threats to world safety of a kind that more mundane intelligence agencies can't touch. On a routine mission to find some kidnapped UN peacekeepers, a mission he expects to be mainly a training exercise for a new Temple recruit, Crossman finds himself in the middle of major trouble: the Order's old enemies the Teutonic Knights, an ancient demonic artifact, an unloved figure out of his own past as a more mundane sort of secret agent, and Sister Mary Magdalene, of the Special Action Executive Branch of the Poor Clares. (That Maggie's actually on his side doesn't make Peter Crossman feel much better about her involvement.) This is a fairly light spy romp, but with the time and care taken to get right all the Catholic background that's so important to the plot and the characters. It appears that this is the start of a series, and I look forward to seeing more of both Peter and Maggie.

Recommended. ( )

Boring, cliched urban fantasy. Didn’t finish it. ( )

Apparently the Knights Templar make excellent secret agents. Who knew? Fluffy but fun. ( )

This moves at a dead run, with black humour gasped out here and there. Not what you'd read for lyrical description or introspective character development--the main character does have a crisis of faith, but he has to keep running while he has it. It's great fun, but I wouldn't describe it as a romp, because there's an edge of seriousness throughout, not so much because of the threatened apocalypse (which is almost a staple of urban fantasy: Buffy stalled it at least once a month) as the questions of faith and purpose that move the characters.

This book was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. It is rather hard to describe. It's a theological thriller - the Knights Templar went underground in the Middle Ages, but they're still around, fighting evil by fighting hard. Peter Crossman, Knight of the Cross, takes on demonic forces, armed with a gun, a new partner, a nun/assassin, and a pure heart. What's not to love?

I know the theology well, and enjoyed that aspect. As I non-Catholic, I know that I missed a lot of the in-jokes. (Yes, there are in-jokes. This is a funny theological thriller.) However, the plot was sharp and the writing was good and the mystery made sense at the end.

Recommended ( )