Review by Michael Nava, author of the Henry Rios novels, which were praised as "an exceptional series" by the New York Times, and the historical novel, The City of Palaces:
Secreta Corporis is, in the tradition of The Name of the Rose, a marvelously erudite novel that brings the past to life in all its complexity while engaging the reader's sympathy in the love story of Rolant and Audric, Knights Templar, as they travel in and around the Holy Land at the end of the 12th century. Garvey's book immerses the reader in Rolant and Audric's world while never losing sight of the deep bond between them that is the heart of the story. This is not the cartoon version of the past readers get in so many historical novels but a rich and detailed landscape in which the reader can happily lose him- or herself. I highly recommend it.
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Secreta Corporis, a novel by John Evan Garvey. Assassin's Creed meets Brokeback Mountain. Reminiscent of the first game of the Assassin's Creed series, as well as the novel "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco and the films "Arn, the Knight Templar" and "Kingdom of Heaven."
Rating: H [Safe for heterosexual readers]
A.D. 1193. To avoid an arranged marriage, Rolant joins the Templars and is quickly transferred from France to Jaffa, the coastal city in the Holy Land that is the main port of entry for medieval pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. At the citadel in Jaffa, Rolant, who is nineteen and only recently knighted, is paired with Audric, a more experienced knight, who sensitively introduces him to a secret brotherhood of Templars who commit "the sin not named" in the dense groves of tamarisk trees scattered among the dunes along the coast.
Those Templars who frequent the groves begin receiving cryptic threats drawn in blood on their bedsheets. Two close to Rolant and Audric are murdered, and when they learn they are the next to be killed they, very reluctantly, leave the Order quietly. Finding few options in Crusader society, they eventually seek livelihoods among the Muslims.
A seemingly insignificant clay tablet that Rolant had found in a dirt pile near a new well turns out to hold information in its ancient text that the Templar leaders can use to manipulate the papacy. But threatening the papacy with disclosure of the artifact will be effective only if the laity remain unaware of its existence. Rolant and Audric are among the very few people who know of the tablet, and the Templar leaders secretly target them to suppress their knowledge.
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More information about Secreta Corporis can be found at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Secreta-Corporis-ebook/dp/B00BJD6TR0) and at the novel's information page (http://www.carpecranium.com/secreta).
The sequel to this novel is entitled The Talpiot Find, and its video can be found at http://www.dailymotion.com/jgarvey1#video=x11no9i.
The video clips are stock from Video Blocks. The still photographs were found at Wikimedia Commons. The sound effects were found at Freesound.org. The music fragments were MIDI-sequenced by the author.
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