Having brought his epic vision of Camelot to a close, Jack Whyte has now focused his attention on the lesser-known story of the Knights Templar. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jack Whyte on his recent book tours will know this is a subject that has fascinated him for many years.

Opening his tale in 1088 with the initiation of a young knight, Hugh de Payens, into the highly secretive Order of Rebirth, Whyte moves the story along at a brisk pace as he whisks his band of knights off to join Pope Urban’s campaign to free the Holy Land. The battles of this first crusade are filled with the excitement and strategic details that one has come to expect from Whyte.

When de Payens is instructed to recover the treasures of the Order, the story shifts from a soldier’s tale to one of intrigue and subterfuge. Whyte introduces a number of fascinating characters, shifting the point of view between a dangerously powerful princess, a corrupt bishop, and Stephen St. Clair, a young knight who is the focus of much of the latter part of the book. Whyte is at home in this world of knights and kings, and brings Jerusalem to life in all its dirty, violent glory.

While Knights of the Black and White is one of Whyte’s best books, it may also prove to be his most controversial. The story is centred on a group of monks in the Holy Land, but they are most definitely not Christian. This is pointed out early on in the book when de Payens explains his belief that Jesus lived and was crucified but was not the physical son of God, and goes on to posit that the Christian Church is founded on a myth created by Paul. Whyte supplies a well-researched and convincing argument for his characters’ views on the church. Hopefully, no one picking up the book will be turned off by the Templars’ beliefs, because they will be missing out on a very good story.

Knights of the Black and White is the first in a planned trilogy. As he brings the book to a close, Jack Whyte leaves us not hanging from the edge of a cliff, but most definitely looking down a long desert road, eagerly anticipating what lies ahead.