The world's most sacred and mysterious object and a race for survival... The brilliant new thriller from global bestseller James BeckerIn Ethiopia, Charles Bronson and Angela Lewis are on the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant. But it looks like their luck is running out. Until, that is, a new avenue springs open in Southern France. Meanwhile the Vatican is getting worried. Their best people are tracking the Ark, but so are a mysterious group operating from Jerusalem. Both are prepared to use deadly force. As the net closes in around the most powerful artefact in history and the greatest mystery, it's also tightening around Bronson and Lewis. They'll need all their smarts to escape this time... A deadly cat and mouse game through a world of history and myth, perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Chris Kuzneski and Scott Mariani.

The national bestselling author of The Lost Testament returns in a thrilling new novel that uncovers the powerful secrets of the Knight Templar—and a conspiracy too shocking to believe.In a quiet English seaside town, antiquarian bookseller Robin Jessop has acquired an odd medieval volume. What appears to be a book isn't a book at all, but a cleverly disguised safe, in which she finds a single rolled parchment, written in code.For encryption expert David Mallory, the text is impenetrable. Until an invaluable clue opens the door to a mystery, and a conspiracy, stretching back seven centuries, when the most powerful man in Europe declared war on the most powerful clan, the Knights Templar.Now, Jessop and Mallory find themselves on a global hunt for an unsurpassed treasure and this much closer to the keys to secrets that could change history, topple an empire, and bury them both alive. Because they're not only the hunters. They're also the...

James Becker, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Treasure of the Templars and The Lost Testament, delivers a breakneck thriller continuing the adventures of antiquarian bookseller Robin Jessop and encryption expert David Mallory. While trying to decipher what few clues they have managed to recover about the Templar’s secrets, Jessop and Mallory discover that the legendary “treasure” they have been searching for may not be what they thought. Rather than gold or precious jewels, their long-sought prize may, in fact, be something far more valuable... Information. For the Templar Knights were the original inventors of international trade. And not all of it was in money. Lands, titles, the fates of entire noble houses were placed in their keeping. The records of such transactions, though centuries old, may possibly yield the greatest wealth in the world. But hunting for such an archive places Jessop and Mallory in the cross hairs of Europe's most powerful families... **Review Praise for James Becker’s novels “Fast-paced action propels the imaginative and controversial plot.”—Publishers Weekly “This is an utterly spellbinding book...stunning and breathtaking....I was left shattered and stunned.”—Euro Crime “James Bond meets Alex Cross.”—Fresh Fiction About the Author James Becker spent over twenty years in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Throughout his career he has been involved in covert operations in many of the world's hotspots, including Yemen, Russia, and Northern Ireland. He is the author of The Lost Treasure of the Templars, as well as the Chris Bronson novels, including The Lost Testament and Echo of the Reich. He also writes action-adventure novels under the name James Barrington and military history under the name Peter Smith in the UK. 

A deadly weapon uncovered... A decades-old conspiracy... A race to save a city... Berlin, 1936: When African-American Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in the Olympic Games, Hitler refuses to place the medals around Owens’s neck and vows to develop a means of wiping “inferior” races from the earth.... London, 2012: Chris Bronson is ordered to infiltrate a group of anarchists who plan to disrupt the Olympic Games with destruction and violence. When Bronson’s cover is blown, the police call off the operation. But Bronson is convinced that there’s something more sinister at play. On the run from both the police and the militant anarchists, Bronson soon finds himself immersed in a long-buried secret surrounding a Nazi weapon, and a deadly revenge plot that he must stop before it’s too late....ReviewPraise for The First Apostle “Fast-paced action propels the imaginative and controversial plot.” —Publishers WeeklyPraise for The Messiah Secret“An entertaining, hunt-and-chase thriller that races from the English countryside to a hidden valley in the Middle East…. Appealing and clever protagonists coupled with intriguing history…” —Publishers Weekly About the AuthorJames Becker spent over twenty years in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. Throughout his career he has been involved in covert operations in many of the world’s hotspots, including Yemen, Russia, and Northern Ireland. He writes action-adventure novels under the name James Barrington and military history under the name Peter Smith in the UK.

AN ANCIENT CODE A clay tablet covered in ancient writing is found by an English couple in Morocco. A day later they are dead, killed in a car crash. But where is the relic they died to protect? A SINISTER SECRET Determined to uncover a secret that’s endured for two millennia, Chris Bronson follows a trail of clues that lead him from the hustle of a Moroccan souk to the deserted caves of Qumran; from the sinister echoes of a water-filled tunnel under the city of Jerusalem to a windswept fortress whose name spells death. A DEADLY CHASE FOR THE TRUTH … Threatened on every side by violent extremists, Bronson is plunged into a mystery rooted in biblical times. For the stone he must find is older and far more dangerous than he could ever have imagined …

For thousands of years we guarded it. But now it has been found. This could be the end — for us; for our organisation; for the world. You must destroy it, and those who have taken it. An ancient object is discovered in a Cairo souk. Hours later, the market trader who sold it is tortured to death. As the bodies begin to pile up, a request for help is sent to British Museum historian Angela Lewis. Angela travels to Spain with her ex-husband, undercover police officer Chris Bronson. There they discover the key to the greatest secret in the history of Christianity. Their only problem is deciphering it before they are brutally murdered like those before them…

James Becker, New York Times bestselling author of The Templar Archive, returns with a breakneck thriller whisking readers into the shadowy secret chambers of the Knights Templar.Having barely escaping the crosshairs of a deadly cult, Robin Jessop and David Mallory crisscross Europe, seeking to unlock the truth behind a conspiracy unresolved for seven hundred years—the mystery of what has given the enigmatic Templars their unwavering power. Infiltrating the group's vast archives, Jessop and Mallory make a startling find. An ancient Templar passport hints at a sacred mission: the transportation of a priceless treasure, an artifact of incomprehensible value. Delving through centuries of clues and deception, the two come face-to-face with a secret that could shake Christendom to its core—and cost their own lives along the way.

From Publishers Weekly A British detective faces down the combined forces of the Mafia and the Vatican in Becker's jaw-dropping thriller. Tunbridge Wells Det. Sgt. Chris Bronson is helping his best friend, Mark Hampton, deal with the sudden death of Mark's wife, Jackie. Her supposedly accidental fatal fall at their house in Ponticelli, Italy, was caused by intruders seeking an ancient Latin inscription revealed during remodeling, the first clue to locating a scroll and diptychs that describe the crucifixion and beheading of two unnamed Jews in A.D. 67. Mafioso Gregori Mandino wants to find and destroy the relics, and he pressures Joseph Cardinal Vertutti to help. After Mafia hit men target Mark, Chris seeks vengeance and answers with the help of his ex-wife, a British Museum conservator. Fast-paced action propels the imaginative and controversial plot.