Knights of the Black and White by Whyte, Jack - 2007

Toronto: Penguin, 2007 Book One of the Templar Trilogy "It is 1088. While many French nobles continue their occupation of a violently hostile England, one young knight, Hugh de Payens, is inducted into the Order, a powerful secret society. When the new Pope calls for knights to join his Crusade to redeem the Holy Land, Hugh is commanded by the Order to go along and quickly finds himself in hellish battle in Jerusalem. Sickened by the slaughter of innocents and civilians, and appalled by the savagery of his fellow Christians, Hugh decides to follow a different path, forming the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ, a unique brotherhood of fighting monks who use the skills honed in battle to defend and protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. But the Order has a different plan, and soon the brethren find themselves charged with an outlandish and dangerous task-a seemingly impossible mission to uncover a hidden treasure that could not only destroy the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem but threaten the fabric of the Church itself. ". First Pbk.Ed... Trade Paperback. Very Good.