Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower [Paperback]

David S. Brody (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2009

A modern-day mystery novel rooted in recently-discovered ancient 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. There is no shortage of people willing to maim and murder to prevent Cam from uncovering the shocking truths behind this ancient Templar mission. Joined by Amanda, a beautiful 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lawyer Cameron Thorne is trying to help an elderly couple keep their home when he finds himself dangerously immersed in an ancient conspiracy. Forced on the run with researcher Amanda, with deadly stalkers from two extremist factions hot on their trail, they begin to piece together information that ties together clues scattered across the Northeast. These clues reveal centuries old efforts by the Catholic Church to surpress information about Prince Henry Sinclair and the Templars that could tear the church apart if they survive long enough to reveal them. Brody delves right into the historical fiction field made so trendy by works like The Da Vinci Code and picks up where they leave off. The novel is extremely well-researched and self-aware, and Brody does a terrific job of wrapping his research in a fast-paced thrill ride that will feel far more like an action film than an academic paper, though both elements are distinctly present. That being said, by the end, the reader is uncertain how much of the theory Brody sincerely believes and how much just makes for a good story. Fans of conspiracy novels will enjoy this but it will be difficult for the average reader to separate this from the Da Vinci Code phenomenon and appreciate this on its own merits.
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Review

The novel is extremely well-researched and self-aware, and Brody does a terrific job of wrapping his research in a fast-paced thrill ride that will feel far more like an action film than an academic paper... --Publishers Weekly, February 2009

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Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Martin & Lawrence Press (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977389871
• ISBN-13: 978-0977389872
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #722,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading, great resource., January 25, 2009

By 

Stephen St Clair "IonLeap dot com" (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower (Paperback)

Any review of this book by a member of the St. Clair family may be viewed with some skepticism. However, I assure you, I am not a 'true believer' of the Prince Henry St. Clair story. This is why my family held the Atlantic Conference this past Fall in Halifax, Nova Scotia - to find the real evidence of early trans-Atlantic voyaging. There, I was lucky enough to meet David and receive an advance copy of his book.

David's writing style is thorougly enjoyable, but this book goes much further in that it's also a tremendous resource on all matters of this unsuual story of Templar history, the St. Clair family, diffusionism, petroglyphs, and much more. Being a member of the family who may descend from Jarl Henry St. Clair, it's difficult to show me new information, but Mr. Brody does and frames it with a knowledge of the plot lines of history that put it all in perspective.

I highly recommend this book.

Steve St. Clair

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRODY HAS OUT BROWNED BROWN WITH THIS ONE. A DELIGHTFUL READ!, March 1, 2009

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower (Paperback)

It is tempting to compare this work to that of Brown's Da Vinci Code. To be quite frank though, David S. Brody has out Browned Brown with this one. Now that being said, I will be the first to admit that I am not a Brown fan and absolutely despised the Da Vinci Code. This book however, was an absolute delight and once started, was difficult to put down.

It is rather difficult to give a plot summation here as each and every chapter adds new twists and turns to this story, and it is almost impossible to discuss the plot without adding spoiler after spoiler. Briefly though, the story actually begins in 1399 with Henry Sinclair lands in the New World with a group of men comprised of warriors, craftsmen and men of the cloth. After established the landing, and after the death of James Gunn, Sinclair's second in command and his burial, the story jumps to the present time. A young lawyer and a young English girl become embroiled in a sinister plot by various secret organizations to try to foil the efforts of any who may uncover the secret carried to North America by Sinclair and his group of Scottish warriors. The body of the story takes place in New England as the author has his characters flitting here and there trying to unwind this complex mystery. The Church, Knight Templers, right wing South American Organizations and more are all included. The core, The Knight Templers has always been a fascination of mine.

This work is a mixture of historical fact, historical speculation and extreme skillful story telling on the part of the author. It is truly what I would call a "page turner." I will right now admit to being one of those individual who firmly believe that Columbus was a Johnny-come-lately to the New World and was quite likely preceded by the Norse, Japanese, Chinese, Phoenicians, and a rather large number of other cultures, some who have completely disappeared in the fog of history. I am quite familiar with the archeological sites mentioned in this particular work and have followed their progress for a number of years, along with other threads historians and archeologists have been following over the past several decades. It took only a small leap of my imagination to find validity in much of what the author has written. Now that does not mean I believe the fictional part of the story...hey, a good story is a good story, but I do feel that the author has used enough archeological evidence to make his fictional tale quiet believable

One of the techniques and ploys the writer has used in this work is photographs of each and every site and artifact (with the exception of two, which he admits to having made up), and wonderful maps. This adds an aspect of realism to the story not normally found in novels of this ilk. I read very little historical fiction, but when I do read it, I want it well researched and I want it based, even loosely, on documented facts. The author has more than adequately done this with this work.

Above all though, as to reading pleasure goes, David Brody is an absolute natural story teller and has been blessed with the skill to articulate his stories in the written word. This is becoming a rather rare phenomenon of late and it should be appreciated by anyone who enjoys a good, action pack and believable story. The author has given us a good mystery, plenty of action, believable characters, both likable and unlikeable, a bit of romance and as a plus, a very good lesson in history. The author has also been kind enough to give us some great resource notes for further reading and research of this fascinating subject.

I do have to recommend this one highly as I enjoyed each and every page. Bottom line: This is one fine read!

Unlawful Deeds
Blood of the Tribe
The Wrong Abraham

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting blend of historical fact and theory..., February 7, 2009

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower (Paperback)

Cabal of The Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower by David S. Brody was another book I got via an offer from a publisher. While the whole Da Vinci Code genre burned out rather quickly for me, this book offered a unique twist in that it was set on American shores. Add in the fact that all the historical sites and artifacts actually do exist, and you get an interesting blend of quasi-history told in a adventure thriller plot.

Cameron Thorne is a lawyer in New England, practicing some low-profile law. But a simple visit from an elderly couple changes his whole life (and eventually the history of the last 2000 years). They are being pressured to sell their home and property to a guy from Scotland who won't take no for an answer. Some research shows that this guy is a treasure hunter looking for lost Templar relics that he believes are buried on the elderly couple's property. But before Cameron can get to the bottom of the guy's story, things start going wrong. The treasure hunter ends up murdered, Cameron's life is threatened by black sedans that try to run him over, his dog is killed, and his brother loses his leg in an explosion prior to starting some digging on the couple's property. Seems that more than one group of people want to keep some secrets hidden forever. Cameron meets and teams up with Amanda Spenser, an attractive English lady who is employed by a group of people charged with maintaining artifacts related to a reported visit to America in the late 1300's by Prince Henry Sinclair. There's a shady element of this consortium, and Amanda decides to throw caution to the wind and team up with Cameron to dig into the story deeper than she's been allowed to in the past. The more they dig, the more attention they attract from secret Vatican groups who are willing to do whatever it takes to stop the two from undercovering a story that would rock the foundation of the organized Church...

While I liked the two main characters in the story, they are really there to help tell a historical story that you have to decide whether it's true (thus a conspiracy) or just a number of things that have been given far more meaning than they ever really had. The main contention is that Prince Henry came over to America with a number of treasures he was protecting from capture by the Roman Catholic church. The main treasure they had was evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, had a daughter named Sarah, and that bloodline of Jesus still remains to this day. Add in worship of the "Sacred Feminine", Masonic societies, Kaballist groups, the Knights Templar, and many other murky secrets, and it calls into question all of what our modern day religions are based on. What adds realism in Cabal is that all the artifacts and locations used in the book actually do exist, so the story that Brody weaves is based on tales that have some basis in actual fact.

Do I accept everything in this book as actual truth? Not even remotely. But Brody puts an amazing amount of documented facts in Cabal which helps him to build his story and premise quite well. It worked for me on both an adventure level as well as a "should investigate this a little deeper" angle.