'Exhilarating, epic, sword-swinging history' TLS

'Jones is certainly an entertainer, but also a fine historian who knows how to render serious scholarship into accessible prose' The Times

'Another triumphant tale from a historian who writes as addictively as any page-turning novelist' Observer

'When it comes to rip-roaring medieval narratives, Jones has few peers, and in the Templars he finds the perfect subject' Sunday Times

The Knights Templar were the wealthiest, most powerful - and most secretive - of the military orders that flourished in the crusading era.

Their story - encompassing as it does the greatest international conflict of the Middle Ages, a network of international finance, a swift rise in wealth and influence followed by a bloody and humiliating fall - has left a comet's tail of mystery that continues to fascinate and inspire historians, novelists and conspiracy theorists.