The Templar Legacy

The Templar Legacy is a thriller by Steve Berry, published in 2006. It begins from the history of the Knights Templar, who accumulated wealth and absolute power over kings and popes before the Inquisition destroyed the order and its hidden riches disappeared.

Cotton Malone, once a top operative for the United States Justice Department, has retired to Copenhagen, where he runs an antiquarian book business. The quiet life ends with an unexpected call that puts him back into the world he thought he had left behind, and the case opens with a violent robbery rather than with an investigation.

Two forces are competing for the Templar treasure, and both of them have discovered that it is not what they believed it to be, which matters far more than the money does. The novel uses the hunt for a hoard to raise a question about what the order was actually protecting, with Malone and the people around him caught between the two groups and unable to trust either. Malone's old instincts come back to him quickly once the call has been made.