The Templar Cross (Templar, #2) by Paul Christopher

The Templar Cross (Templar, #2) Reviews

• 
  Matt

  Warning: I am extremely biased towards books that have history, the army, and treasure hunts! These books will almost always get 4 stars from me because they allow me to escape the middle east where I'm currently stationed and follow a fictional character on an Indiana Jones type adventure! Books like these are my addiction.
  
  I found this one on a shelf in a restaurant on base. I am a sucker for anything having to do with historic fiction and action. Add the Templar's and anything that remotely reminds me of, "National Treasure" and I'm hooked.
  
  Main Character: LTC John Holiday Army Ranger, now history prof at USMA
  Side kick: Rafi Wanounou, Israeli anthropologist from Jerusalem
  Han Solo character (the bad-ass who keeps saving the MC and Side Kick):
  Emil Abdul Tidyman, Egyptian/Canadian mercenary with a heart of gold.
  
  Sustain: It's a series of books featuring your normal reoccurring action hero in the form of a retiring Army ranger LTC John "Doc" Holiday. Unfortunately for me this is the second book in the series so, I've started in the middle and missed a lot of the character development.
  
  Sustain: It drives me crazy when authors describe the history of everything to include local plant life before they advance the plot. And, when they finally advance the plot, you find out it adds nothing to the denouement. Mr. Christopher doesn't do this. He explains everything relevant in less than a page and it all ties together with the plot nicely.
  
  Improve: Some of the villains are too cookie cutter and honestly it seemed more like a video game script than a book. Due to the fact there was always a bad guy to defeat every couple of chapters. Also, one villain did not make any sense to the story whatsoever. He showed up playing the classic James Bond uber-villain for about 3 chapters and then disappeared until the end of the book. I read the book in 3 days and couldn't put it down, but when the villain from the first 150 pages pops up again after page 350 it didn't make sense.
  
  Improve: I got it. The hero is going to win, and that is exactly what I want. However, everything goes perfectly for the hero and his team. The weapons he picks up are always fully loaded, and he knows how to shoot everything with pinpoint accuracy. Nothing ever goes wrong. It reminds me of the movie, "Commando" with Arnold Schwarzenegger who manages to kill over 200 enemy soldiers without getting shot or having to reload. I don't want the hero to lose, but can't he maybe not show up in the right place, at the right time, with everything working like he had a plan all along?
  
  Recommendation: I'd start with the first book before reading this. I would have given this book three stars due to the lack of character development, but since I read into the middle of the trilogy I'll assume the author set it all up in book 1. I love books like this where I can picture the actors who would play the characters, and the plot is always moving forward. There weren't a lot of moments where I was worried about the characters but there were a few moments where I was emotionally invested. I'll read the third book when it comes out in paperback and I don't know if I'll go back and buy the first book as there are a number of books I'm working through right now.
• 
  Alissa

  I have to be honest, I gave the first Templar book 5 stars because I absolutely loved it. This book was sorely lacking in historical content, and I don't know where the series is headed at this point. I will continue to read the series, but if the next book is more like this one than the first one. I probably won't read the rest.
• 
  Matt

  Christopher continues his great Templar series with this installment that sees Holiday head out in search of his niece. While this is the underlying plot, the theme of the book is a new world travel thriller.
  
  
  
  Christopher uses his characters and storyline to explore the vast edges of the world, all with the Templar thread woven through experiences and historical happenstance. I quite enjoyed learning all about the various parts of the world., bth those that pertain to the Templars and the German armies of WWII.
  
  
  
  Kudos to Christopher for tying events together from the previous book, reintroducing characters to the reader, something that he failed to do in his Finn Ryan series, which really got under my skin. I was eager to keep reading and learning about everything that Christoper had to offer.
  
  
  
  I could not stop until I got to the end, in hopes that the next book would be equally as interesting.
• 
  Monika

  Brilliant read. I like 'Doc' Holliday. I still have few of his adventures to find and read and I'm sure I'll enjoy them as this one and others I read.
• 
  Walter

  I just finished "The Templar Cross" "An Ancient Secret, a Deadly Legacy for Today"
  So You might think it's about a Templar secret that has vast consequences for the world today.
  Yes that's what I thought as well.
  What is it really about. A women gets kidnapped to cover up a smuggling route for Nazi gold. Her family member, who is a military officer, comes to the rescue.
  So where does the Templars come in? Well his first book was about a Templar sword, so he had to call this one Templar as well to give you the impression it's a series.
  Overall it wasn't a bad novel and I would have given it 3 stars, but the title doesn't cover the story.
• 
  Ninamarie

  Suggested that you do not read this book, number two in a series, unless you have read the first one. It is a continuation and really doesn’t stand well on its own. Not particularly well written, formulaic plot involving good guys, bad guys (ooh, Vatican priests!), imposters, and unreliable loyalties.
• 
  Kat Jones

  The first 100+ pages were interesting but a bit slow. After that it was off to the races with only small breaks. It was less about Templars and more a warning against greed and extreme blind faith turning people evil. All in all, it was fun.
• 
  Tomavalon

  Not as good as I'd hoped.
• 
  Rusty Dalferes

  A stalwart second entry in the Templar series, though the plot doesn't immediately seem to have much to do with either modern or historical Templars. I'll also give the same warning I gave about the first in the series, that the quality of the writing and plots of later books in Christopher's Templar saga are of much lower quality, so enter into reading this series with full awareness that you will likely be frustrated later on.
  
  The second book in the series begins with "Doc" Holliday once again teaching military history at West Point, when he is informed by Rafi Wanounou, an Israeli archaeologist he met in the previous book and the fiance of his cousin, Peggy, that Peggy had been kidnapped during a photojournalism trip in North Africa searching for Imhotep's tomb. Doc and Rafi immediately go after her, getting involved in an intricate plot to find not only Imhotep's tomb, but also a large cache of Nazi gold lost since World War II. Chasing them the whole time are Nazis and their descendants, Vatican secret agents, and Tuareg terrorists, as they follow the clues through France, Egypt, Libya, and Italy.
  
  This was another decent spy/adventure thriller following a solid first book, but again I must warn readers that the series falls off the quality rails beginning in the third book and becomes more frustrating in the fourth. The plot moves well, with lots of action and tension. It was a good, satisfying international action book, though its inclusion as a "Templar" book is really only tangentially explained, as the Templars kind of take a back seat to the Nazis here. Still, it was a fun romp around a few countries, and moves fast enough that it can be read in two or three days.
  
  There were a few minor problems with the writing mechanics, mostly centered around a wealth of missing (and necessary) commas, but otherwise it wasn't a horribly-edited book from a grammar or syntax standpoint.
  
  In sum, this is probably the last book in the series that will approach a four-star review, but it was, in fact, a decent international thriller. I give it a decent recommendation as a quick beach read to fans of spy stories, Indiana Jones-style archaeological mysteries, and books dealing with the modern repercussions of World War II.
• 
  Spencer Littlejohn

  Good start to a line of stories
  
  I like Paul Christopher and this second tale of Doc Holiday. Doc is a very courageous and seemingly infallible warrior with a lot of compassion. The ability to find just the right connections is uncanny and I would rate a five if it wasn't for how easily he seems to get out of almost impossible scenarios. The journey is fun to read through as was the first and I will keep going. At some point I do want to see Doc bailed out by someone else but lobe the heroics Paul provides with him. So I have a bit of a paradoxical view that keeps me reading to were if it happens.
• 
  Trish

  I did realise that this was the second book in the series when I started reading. But I don’t think you need to read the first book it does reference thinks that happened previously but not in a way that you’re left scratching your head thinking huh?!.
  
  I really enjoyed the mystery & there was just enough conspiracy theory to keep me interested. Perhaps I will go back & read the first book & search out the other books in the series.
• 
  See

  A very interesting book with surprise and suspense at every chapter.
  
  A lot of intelligent characters. However most of them die before the book ends. There a lot of twists and turns and a lot of travel and of course the hero survives so he can come back in the next book.
• 
  E Mac

  Can't wait for the next chapter !
• 
  Sue

  My actual rating is 3.5 if 5 stars.
• 
  Sussy_lwp

  Me encantó ¡¡¡ está 2da parte , super emocionante como se precipitan los sucesos unos tras otros para rescatar a su sobrina Peggy.
• 
  Conor Grath

  ,
• 
  Bernie Charbonneau

  A decent continuation in the series.
• 
  Gail Marchant

  This is more Indiana Jones type book than the Templar’s great action
• 
  D Donnell

  Treacherous adventure with a couple heroes rescuing the damsel in distress. Similar to Clive Cussler whose books I love.