THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR by Helena P Schrader
iUniverse - March 2007
ISBN 0-595-43271-9
Historical Fiction - 1307-1311, Various Locations

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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This is the third part of Helena P Schrader's Templar trilogy (the other two are The Cypriot Knight and Sir Jean of Acre) and deals with the destruction of Templar order. If you haven't read the other two this is not a great problem as they are all standalone novels and in this case Schrader has left the best until last in my opinion. Sir Percival de Lacy gets arrested with the other Templars while he is travelling through France and after being tortured escapes. He fortunately falls into the hands of a former crusader who was once a novice Templar and who was part of the crusade led by St Louis. Now he has a granddaughter called Felice who soon falls in love with the Englishman and gets caught up in his adventures.

As with the earlier two volumes this is a historically accurate and absorbing tale, replete with adventures and thrilling happenings, romance and some very well-realised characters that fairly leap off the page. Schrader has wisely kept her cast of characters down so she can concentrate on developing them and the result is a psychologically perceptive novel that stays in the mind long after. Schrader is a master at describing memorable scenes whether it is the torture of her hapless protagonist and his companions with its devastating mental and emotional aftermath (brilliantly described), daily life in the early 14th century for those great and poor with its squalor, color and vibrancy or the places visited by the characters and the result is a novel that stays in the mind long afterwards and surely cannot fail to disturb, enchant and absorb readers. Worthy of being on this classics page - go find a copy.