Barnes & Noble distributes Quest For The True Cross - a Templar adventure

July 8, 2012 - PRLog -- London, United Kingdom – July14th, 2012.  American readers can now enjoy an intelligent and action packed Knight Templar adventure that will transport you back to the crisis-ridden 12th century – but also contains many messages for our own troubled times.

Barnes & Noble is now selling ‘Quest for the True Cross’ – the third book from writer and journalist Tony McMahon, whose harrowing life story of a 1980s boxer was short-listed for best British sports biography of 2011. A former BBC news producer, he also co-authored the rock and roll memoir of Neville Staple – front man in legendary ska band, The Specials.

“Forget Dan Brown,” McMahon says, “Quest for the True Cross is hokum-free. It will immerse you in the murkiest depths of the Middle Ages. Our hero, Sir William de Mandeville, is a troubled young man who must win back his family honor and cling on to his own sanity. This story is brutal and realistic and not for the faint hearted.”

Weary of formulaic grail quest throwaway fiction, McMahon carried out two years of research in Europe and the Middle East to recreate the reality of the Knights Templar. His characters are unforgettable and the pace of the plotting leaves little time to catch your breath.

Sir William de Mandeville is a soldier damaged by the horrors of war. His sidekick, Pathros, is a Christian easterner who is neither accepted in his homeland or in the west. The boy thief Nicholas is rescued from a gruesome trial by ordeal but can he grow into a chivalrous knight or always remain a base and mean serf?

The trio embark on a quest to recover the True Cross – stolen from the Knights Templar by two unscrupulous thieves and now held by the Saracens. The journey takes the reader from Jerusalem, to medieval England and then on to the more unfamiliar but thrilling setting of 12th century Iberia. In what will become Spain and Portugal – Islam and Christianity are ranged against each other in a war to the finish.

We meet bishops who seek to destroy the Templars - Islamic fanatics who wish to overthrow their own leaders - men who call themselves knights but are little more than petty thugs and criminals. Treachery is everywhere. Nobody can truly be trusted. Not even the beautiful Orraca whom William falls hopelessly in love with.

Quest for the True Cross will challenge all your perceptions about the Middle Ages.  It will also make you realise how firmly linked we are to those dark and forbidding times.

Contact Tony McMahon at – templartruth@gmail.com
Tony McMahon on Linkedin - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonymcmahon


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