Knights of the Black and White

by Jack Whyte

Published 1 August 2006
The exciting first book in a brand new fictional trilogy about the most important events in the history of the Order of the Knights Templar. He swore eternal allegiance to the Order -- but at what cost? It is 1088 and young knight Hugh de Payens joins the Order, an ancient society wreathed in secrecy whose alliances unite France's most prominent families in a bond more sacred than even their loyalty to king and country. Soon Hugh is hurled into the nightmarish world of the First Crusade, but the blood-soaked brutality he witnesses there repels him. He resolves to remain in the Holy Land but dedicate the rest of his life to God, not war, forming an order of monks committed to protecting pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. But the Order has not forgotten Hugh, and charges him and his brother Knights with a near-impossible task: to find and bring home the lost treasure of the Order. There's just one problem.The treasure contains revelations so dangerous it could destroy the Kingdom of Jerusalem -- and the mighty Catholic Church itself!