Brother and sister writing team, Boyd & Beth Morrison, have teamed up again in Book 2 of their Tales of the Lawless Land series to give us a rousing romp through Medieval Italy in search of the lost treasure of the Knights Templar! As with Book 1 we follow the exploits of excommunicated English Knight Gerard Fox and his girlfriend/companion after their wanderings take them to a small village in Tuscany where they help a wealthy lady who is under attack from marauders. The lady is Luciana Corosi whose husband is one of the wealthiest and most unscrupulous bankers in Florence. After saving her from near death they escort Luciana to the family castle, and while there they learn of plots to kill Luciana. Oh boy! The action heats up, and lo and behold this is all about finding the Templars lost treasure as clues have been hidden in letters that have just surfaced. Once again escaping death the three begin a cross-Italy race to find the hidden clues to the location of the treasure. They are in a race against Luciana’s husband, his own English Knight and his evil mistress. Good stuff.
We get a travelogue of central Italy, as the clues take us to Siena, Florence, and Venice. It is filled with well described action scenes, and there are surprises galore in this book. This book kept me reading until I finished it, and it certainly appears that things are set up for Book 3 of this series. If you have not read the first book of the series that is no problem since one easily catches up the few main issues from Book 1 that carry over into Book 2. An addition plus about this book is the marvelous Afterword written by Beth that adds wonderful historical details as to the background of the plot.
History? Historical Fiction? Mystery? Action/Adventure? Travelogue? Who knows how to categorize this book, but one thing I can tell you that it is a fast paced, well written book that kept me on the edg of my seat from page 1 until the very end. An enthusiastic 5***** rating for this book!!!
