Valley of The Templars
Paul Christopher

Signet/New American Library - A division of Penguin Group
June 5, 2012 / ISBN 978-0451237156
Historical/Thriller/Mystery
Amazon

Reviewed by Claudia VanLydegraf

Paul Christopher has done it again. This is the second book by Christopher I am reviewing. The first was The Lucifer Gospel and as with that book, he has integrated a number of characters, many of dubious distinction and all with high Security Honors. Did you ever hear about the Valley of Death in Cuba? Well that is where this story takes place, and there are several other factors that all come together to make a search for this particular "Valley" important, the first being that many long years ago, like about 500, Christopher Columbus was supposed to find Cuba first. One of his great-grandson's (through his son), Diego Columbus, became a ruler of the island community as well as establishing a settlement that still to this day remains a stronghold of the Columbus family and the Templar's. Have you ever wondered why the Templar Crosses are on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria? Well Columbus was a Templar, and his trip to find the fastest way to the Indies was financed by Queen Isabella. However Columbus had a pact with a man from Portugal named Emanuel I who was an active member of the Ordem Militar de Cristo of Portugal. Columbus gave all the same information to Emanuel I that he passed on to Queen Isabella. What Emanuel I did with that information is what this book is about.

Army Ranger John (Doc) Holliday is doing a service for one of his right-hand men, Eddie Cabrera by helping in the search for his long lost brother, Domingo, who has gone missing and whose family wants to know what happened to him. They find out he is in Cuba, so the mission that starts the trip is simply to find Domingo, but quickly turns into a military unit going into an invasion-and-kill mission. The Templar group that still inhabits the Valley of Death inside the Cuban boundary is on the move and doing everything to overthrow the regime of Castro and his army of corruption. The person they come to rely on in Cuba is an old scraggly guy named Arango and he has a boat named the Tiburon Blanco that he uses to get Holliday and Cabrera around to the island that houses The Valley of Death. There are a lot more players and incidents, such as a Blackhawk Team, as well as plots that I haven't mentioned, mostly because of lack of space, but they are in the theme of the story and are very determining factors in what Holliday and Cabrera are doing.

The Valley of The Templars is a very good book that I enjoyed reading, and I am sure you will also, especially if you have any curiosity about the Templar history and what they are trying to do today to our world. Get it, read it and enjoy it.