A man whose purse Jack had lifted in Crispin's favorite tavern turns out not to be dead drunk, but simply dead. The corpse turns out to be a Templar Knight, an order which is not supposed to have existed in seventy-five years. Before long, Crispin is caught between the dead man's Templar colleagues, knights in service of the anti-pope, and two women with secrets of their own, one of whom was his fiancée before his disgrace. How many of the different threads are linked, and how many of those involved knew the whereabouts of a cup alleged to be the Holy Grail?
I continue to love this series, this one no less than the rest. I'm not sure how much it may have been revised now that it's a prequel rather than the official first book in the series, and I'm not sure if it's the best place to start or if it's better to read after getting to know the characters.