This is the first book starring Cotton Malone and Steve Berry kicks off with Malone getting tangled up with the Knights Templar, long thought dead in their skirmishes with Kings and other enemies, but are actually alive, well and very wealthy in Europe. Their master has just died and they have just elected a new master, who is much more aggressive, more assertive and who wants to claim back the Templars' heritage from those he believes stole it from them. The stage is set for a violent showdown between the new master, his faithful followers and the people he plans to go up against - including Stephanie Nelle, Cotton's former boss at the Justice Department.[return][return]It starts with a Templar assassin trying to rob and murder her and it goes downhill from there. From that point on, Nelle and Malone try to outwit and defeat the Templars and their murderous master as they try to claim what they believe to be rightfully theirs, treasures and monies which go back hundreds of years, treasures and monies which they believe will restore their reputation. The link to Nelle is a book her dead husband wrote more than a decade ago which may unwittingly show on an obscure tombstone where this treasure is located. But the former master, before dying, dispatched two knights templars to protect Nelle and Malone and while they are protecting them and ratcheting up the body count, the identity of one of them shocks Nelle.[return][return]This is an excellent book but I found that it went on too long. It could have done with being cut back a little bit as it dragged on in a few places. 480 pages is far too long.