First let’s start with a history lesson. (That opening is suppose to be ironic, as both of these authors write political thrillers heavy on historical events!)
Ten years ago, in 2006, Steve Berry published the first novel in his Cotton Malone series, The Templar Legacy
For Cotton Malone, his story began when his former supervisor at the United States Justice Department was nearly robbed. That event set off a chain reaction pulling Cotton, who was enjoying life as an antique book dealer in Copenhagen, back into a world he’d once left behind. Ultimately, the story becomes an action-packed treasure hunt, with two groups of people searching for the lost treasures once owned by the Templar Knights.
Khoury’s The Templar Legacy opens with a breathtaking scene set in 1291. As everything burns down around them, a handful of Knights sneak their way towards the sea carrying a treasure chest. Onto a ship they go, before escaping undetected – never to be seen again. Flash toward to the present day, four men wearing Templar symbols ride by horseback down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The modern-day knights storm the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which just happened to be holding a formal event to celebrate the opening of a new exhibit featuring ‘Treasures of the Vatican.’ Together, the horseman fight their way to find one particular artifact, which they steal. Then, like the handful of knights before them who sailed off to sea, the horseman disappeared into the night.
An FBI investigation, headed up by a man named Sean Riley, uncovers a deadly race between groups to uncover the lost secrets of the Templar Knights.
Both books are fantastic, and remain loved by fans to this day. In fact, I just recently wrote that I believe Steve Berry’s 2016 novel, The 14th Colony
Raymond Khoury also has a new book out this year called The End Game
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their bestselling Templar novels, the two authors have teamed up and co-authored a short story called Shadow Tag
Here’s the information from Amazon:
It’s been ten years since FBI agent Sean Reilly and retired Justice Department operative Cotton Malone got dragged around the globe on their separate Templar adventures. They’d never worked on a case together—until now.
Something’s afoot in London, England. American specialists have gone missing. Intel chatter points to a major terrorist plot in the works. And a sinister keyword links to both Reilly and Malone.
The two agents are urgently despatched to London where they discover a plot that’s more personal, and more surprising, than they could have possibly imagined.
It’s like nothing you’ve read before.
As if there weren’t already enough reasons to run and go get Shadow Tag as soon as possible, here’s two more: It’s only .99 cents, and it comes with a sneak peak of both Berry’s The Last Templar
Get the short story here