Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower

Templars in America Series, Book 1

By: David S. Brody

Narrated by: Ryan Burke

A modern-day adventure-mystery based on artifacts left by Templar Knights during a secret mission to North America in 1398.

Attorney Cameron Thorne is thrust into a bloody tug-of-war involving secret societies, treasure hunters, and keepers of the secrets of the Jesus bloodline. Joined by Amanda, an enchanting British researcher with secrets of her own, Cam races around New England with only two choices - unravel the 600-year-old mysteries encoded in the ancient artifacts, or die trying.

©2008 David S. Brody (P)2019 Tantor

Like the story

Well read. Another Templar story that needs more notice. hope others will enjoy it to.

Great mix of history with present day!

Aside from the voiceover challenge for the females, the story was quite enjoyable! A recommendation to those that like to learn about new ideas from common understandings.

Primer for Queen of Heaven Worship

I love stories about many of the subjects covered in this book. The author presents many compelling entreatments as did the serpent to Eve. When Cain fled the presence of the LORD he began to worship in his own way. I was amazed at how the author was able to present the pagan worships and tie them together. He makes a very appealing book. God is neither male nor female, the sexes are for procreation, and because of the sin of Eve was she curse to be under man. I agree what an awful curse. The male figure is representation of authority. That authority was given by God. But in the scheme of heaven there is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor gentile, neither circumcised nor uncircumcised. Truly we are in the days of Noe, and those pre-deluvian religions are returning, and this book is describing the religion that caused the different languages and the scattering of the people at the Tower of Babel.

So very long...

I feel that this novel could have been much more appealing. The author sets the romatic adventure in the context of the contested history of visits to continental USA by by various Europeans prior to Columbus. This has the great potential. However, he saw a need to give us an in-depth education on the topic and so it goes on and on with the central characters discussing all of the details in what was to me endless tedium. We get the ideas! Enough already.
There is also a character designed to be sceptical of the history and thus show the great determination of the good guys to keep moving the plot forward. But he is written to be so implacably stupid that his role wears very thin.
There are mysterious bad guys trying to stop the hero and heroin and their assorted helpful incidental characters. That does add some excitement to the story. At least that don't talk as much as the good guys.
An additional problem for me is that Mr Brody's writing includes aspects such as "He laughed. Heh! Heh!". ( I made this example up here on the fly but the example is valid.) When read in an audio performance, it sounds unintentionally comical. Mr Brody, you can say "He laughed." Nothing more. Again, we get the idea.
The performer does his best and, to me, is suprisingly succesful at being a young English woman.
Following on from hearing some of the Elly Griffiths series where the author writes like an angel, 12 hours of the Templars vs Rome feels way to long.

Informative Fiction

This is a well-written adventure. A great escape into the conspiracy theories surrounding the Knights Templar. The reader has a pleasant voice for narration.

Exceptional

This is truly an exceptional novel that makes you really think about our history. Remarkable!

The narrator makes or breaks an audible book.

Can't finish the book, the female voice is cringe worthy. The narrator is fine with the male characters, needed a female to read the Amanda portions.

Historical drama

great indepth story incorporating historical landmarks and facts. The author clearly did a lot of research and presented it in a interesting and cohesive format. Great job.

Best if you know the area

Not great, but entertaining enough, especially being familiar with Newport and the other sites. Enough to get me interested in the next in series…if I can find it….

A “Dollar Store” DaVinci Code

I really tried to give this a chance but the characters have no depth and the narrator couldn’t keep his accents separated from one another.