The Sanctuary

By: Raymond Khoury

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

In the powerful new thriller from the author of the international bestseller The Last Templar, a geneticist and a CIA agent on a deadly quest to find the most dangerous book in the world discover a secret that has destroyed everyone in its path for centuries.

Naples, 1750. In the dead of night, three men with swords burst into the palazzo of a marquis. Their leader, the Prince of San Severo, accuses the marquis of being an imposter, and demands to know a secret only the marquis harbors. In the fight that ensues, the false marquis escapes over the rooftops of Naples, leaving behind a burning palazzo and a raging prince now obsessed with finding his quarry at any cost.

Baghdad, 2003. An army unit on a routine mission makes a horrifying discovery: a state-of-the-art, concealed lab where dozens � men, women, children � have died, the subjects of gruesome experiments. The mysterious scientist they were after, a man believed to be working on a bioweapon and known only as the hakeem � the doctor � escapes, taking with him the startling truth about his work. A puzzling clue is left behind: a circular symbol of a snake feeding on its own tail.

As the power of the symbol comes to light, revealing the centuries of destruction left in its wake, one unsuspecting woman stands at the center of a conspiracy that could change the world forever.

In the masterful hands of international bestseller Raymond Khoury, The Sanctuary delivers the same rapid-fire suspense and provocative scholarship that made The Last Templar a coast-to-coast blockbuster.

©2007 Raymond Khoury (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Khoury] follows up the thrills of The Last Templar with...more thrills." (Tampa Tribune)

"A high-octane rollercoaster ride of thrills and spills...Khoury is a screenwriter and the novel’s tight construction and hyper-fast pacing owe an obvious debt to that discipline." (The Irish Mail on Sunday)

"Fresh and exciting...Khoury makes the conspiracy feel utterly believable and imbues his characters with infectious passion for finding the truth. A surefire hit with fans of conspiracy-based historical thrillers." (Booklist)

Pass on this one

This one is just overwritten. The plot is one fairly predictable narrow escape after another with too much filler in between. And the filler itself is overwritten. The result is just a very long listen.

amazing

great and riveting story. made my long drive not so long. excellent performance. fantastic. thank you!

Kept my interest!

While I enjoyed the author's last work, The Last Templar, I wasn't wild about it. The Sanctuary though, was one of those books that I just couldn't put down! Lots of action--all believable, and lots of interesting historical facts sprinkled throughout. My only complaint was the extremely poor editing job done throughout the reading. Many times there were noises indicating where the reading had been edited. In a few places a phrase was repeated twice--the original take was not fully removed in the editing. Indeed, in one place, the recording jumped to the end of the book every time I I tried to play it from that point. I had to skip over a few minutes of recording in order to continue with the story. In all of the hundreds of Audible recordings I've listened to over the years, this is the ONLY one where I've encountered a bad editing job.

Entertaining, keeps you interest.

Some lengthy and philosophical segments. Elected to fast forward through these. Other than that, great story and kept my interest until the end.

Sanctuary

I loved the book. This book makes you think and then surprises you at the end. I would recommend this book. Enjoy!

Great Read!

Lots of suspense with a steady stream of surprises. Really enjoy Khoury's writing style and storytelling. Highly recommend this book.

Fast Paced

This well-paced book kept your interest from beginning to end. Even though some flashbacks were obscure and could not be connected to the main plot, they were short and did not hinder the story line. The characters were well-drawn even though their motivation was sometimes in question. Still an a very readable book.

Bad Edits

The narrator was good, the book itself was even decent but it was hard to get past all of the terrible edits. You can clearly hear almost like DJ scratch sounds every 5 to 10 minutes throughout the entirety of the book. Very annoying, very distracting

Wonderful narrator, gripping story!

The narrator was great! Felt the characters come alive. Story was interesting and suspenseful, easy to follow. Overall 5/5

Average read

The first half of this book is really slow...almost gave up on the story but the second half is above average for this genre. The story was line was good in that it tells of the discovery of an ancient secret that could change society. However, the author missed a golden opportunity to explore in more depth and detail how the future would be changed. Instead, he chose to fall into a good, but common series of events common to action novels.