Rarely do I begrudge the money spent on a book but this attempt at a new theory for the origins of the Templars is sorely lacking in content. Without any footnotes and no index or bibliography I found trying to accept the authors' theories was a hard pill to swallow. This book deserves only two stars for the interesting ideas that are proposed - certainly not for the amateurish way in which they are presented. The many typo errors only add to the uncomfortable feeling that this entire effort was concocted in someone's garage and thrown out to the public at an outrageously high price.

This book was a real struggle to read. The authors thank their editor for helping to combine the writing of a Canadian and an Englishman, but as an American, I kept tripping over the excessive use of commas. Coupled with numerous typos, it was very hard to complete this book. While the authors disagree with Baigent and Leigh, I will credit the latter with providing footnotes, a more complete bibliography, and an index, all of which are missing from this book. This leaves me without much to pursue further. The real disappointment is the realization that this book is really only a part 1 of a story and all of the promises made to reveal things are left to the next book. I gave it the second star only because there actually are some original ideas presented here. Too bad the only way to continue to research their ideas is to take them on faith or wait for their next book. I hope they change editors before then and give us the benefit of some real references.

Indeed, this is a good book. But to get even more out of it, read The Illuminati Manifesto.
The Illuminati Manifesto makes public the secret of the Craft for the first time ever!

Stephen White, Remote Control (Signet, 1997)

Remote Control is very much one of _those_ mysteries, the kind that makes you read a couple of paragraphs at every stoplight. (Please control the urge to read while driving.) By now, we should all be familiar with White's cast of characters (Remote Control is the fourth Alan Gregory, psychiatrist-turned-don't-wanna-be-detective, novel) and his method of dropping loads of bricks on us when we're not looking, and slipping the clues in while we're still rubbing our head and cursing the building contractors. This time around, White gives us a self-absorbed technowhiz entrepreneur, a law-student intern with a recently-dead Senator father who falls head over heels for him, his abrasive partner, and a parallel thread running through the novel at the end of everything, where Alan's wife Lauren is being interrogated for the shooting of an unidentified man. Problem is, no one, including Lauren, is sure she actually shot the guy.

Yes, it all comes together perfectly (think Memento, except that both threads are moving forward-- one just moves more slowly than the other). White is one of those guys who writes good, clean, fun mysteries that are on the level of the big guns, but never gets the press they do. If you haven't yet picked up a Stephen White novel, give him a shot next time the New York Times Bestseller types are between books. *** 1/2

I got a prerelease copy of this book, and read it in two nights. It was very suspenseful, and a very god read. After reading it, I went and found all of the other Stephen White books and read them. The only unfortunate thing is that he has only written five books. But, they are very good. They remind me of my favorite series, the Dismas Hardy books of John Lescroart. Very good, highly recommended

I have read all of Stephen White's books, and this is the best one yet. I could hardly believe it when I reached the end. I began reading the book and then "boom" it was over and I don't think I had taken a breath during the whole thing. The main characters were all familiar from his previous books, but this time they were like old friends and not just names on a page. The plot of the book, which involves high tech use of computer and the abuse heaped by the press on celebrities, is timely and intriguingly combined. Hats off to White and I hope that he hurries his next Allen Gregory book along.

This book is a good introduction to the problems and joys of owning a wood. There are very few books in this area and this one was a welcomed insight. There was however very little technical information. This book was a contributing factor to buying a wood of our own.

Tried to get interested but I find the character of Alan Gregory just a bore. There are some fine sequences in this book but I felt like I was reading one of those parlor mysteries where the ramblings of the main characters were more important than the mystery itself. When the villian is revealed at the end I found myself not buying it. Maybe because of the lack of real character development or the lack of empathy for Alan Gregory. This is the third Alan Gregory novel by Stephen White that I have read and this time I have asked myself 'is that all there is? I think that this series is worth the effort to read but I warn you not to start with this entry. You may be put off and ignore others from this author which are very good reads. Also be aware that some books of the series shift the main character emphasis from Alan Gregory to Lauren Crowder, his girl firend/wife.

Found this offering a little slow and somewhat hard to follow. I found it slow for a 100 pages then it picked up and dropped me again. I really think that it was somewhat of a confusing story and never really brought together. I will read others as I try never to base my opinions on one book and it seems that his earlier books rated higher.

[...] Having read enough cozies in my life to still be able to count them on one hand, I have come to the probably erroneous conclusion that the main difference between the cozy mystery and the hard-boiled detective novel is that the investigator in the cozy is never in quite as much immediate physical danger as is the hard-boiled chap. Even if the chap in question isn't too hard-boiled.

Such is the case with Boulder, CO psychiatrist Alan Gregory, the hero of Stephen White's open-ended series of mystery/thrillers. regory spends his time getting shot at, beaten about the head, henpecked, and otherwise threatened by a bevy of adversaries and never enjoying it much. The best kind of detective-- an amateur who gets too wrapped up in his cases.

In this case, it's hard to avoid. The victim is Gregory's next door neighbor, a woodcraftsman who was designing sets for a theatre production in town. The murder is similar in some ways to a previous murder in Denver, and so the local police start thinking "serial killer." Gregory's PD pal Sam Purdy hires him on as an amateur profiler, and away we go.

Stephen White is a solid writer of thrillers, easily as good as any of the A-list names working in the genre today. His lack of widespread readership continues to baffle me. Harm's Way is of a piece with the rest of the Alan Gregory novels, and comes just as highly recommended from this camp. *** 1/2