Most Popular Books by Piers Paul Read

The internationally bestselling author of Alive explores the rise, the catastrophic fall, and the far-reaching legacy of Knights of the Temple of Solomon. "This is an engrossing and beautifully written work of popular history that unfolds like a well-structured crime novel." — Booklist In 1099, the city of Jerusalem, a possession of the Islamic Caliphate for over four-hundred years, fell to an army of European knights intent on restoring the Cross to the Holy Lands. From the ranks of these holy warriors emerged an order of monks trained in both scripture and the military arts, an order that would protect and administer Christendom''s prized conquest for almost a century: the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, or the Templars. In this articulate and engaging history, Piers Paul Read explores the rise, the catastrophic fall, and the far-reaching legacy of these knights who took, and briefly held, the most bitterly contested citadel in the monotheistic West. Drawing on the most recent scholarship, and writing with authority and candor, Read chronicles the history of the blood-splattered monks who still infiltrate modernity in literature, as the inspiration for secret societies, and in the backyard fantasies of any child with access to a stick and a garbage can lid. More than armed holy men, the Templars also represented the first uniformed standing army in the Western world. Sustaining their military order required vast sums of money, and, to that end, a powerful multinational corporation formed. The prosperity that European financiers enjoyed, from the efficient management of Levantine possessions and from pioneering developments in the field of international banking, would help jump-start Europe''s long-slumbering Dark Age economy. In 1307, the French king, Philip IV, expropriated Templar lands, unleashing a wave of repression that would crest five years later. After Templar leaders broke down and confessed, under torture, to blasphemy, heresy, and sodomy, Pope Clement V suppressed the Order in 1312. Was it guilty as charged? And what relevance has the story to our own times? In this remarkable history, Piers Paul Read explores the Crusades and the individual biographies of the many colorful characters that fought them.

#1 New York Times Bestseller: The true story behind Netflix''s Society of the Snow—A rugby team resorts to the unthinkable after a plane crash in the Andes. Spirits were high when the Fairchild F-227 took off from Mendoza, Argentina, and headed for Santiago, Chile. On board were forty-five people, including an amateur rugby team from Uruguay and their friends and family. The skies were clear that Friday, October 13, 1972, and at 3:30 p.m., the Fairchild''s pilot reported their altitude at 15,000 feet. But one minute later, the Santiago control tower lost all contact with the aircraft. For eight days, Chileans, Uruguayans, and Argentinians searched for it, but snowfall in the Andes had been heavy, and the odds of locating any wreckage were slim. Ten weeks later, a Chilean peasant in a remote valley noticed two haggard men desperately gesticulating to him from across a river. He threw them a pen and paper, and the note they tossed back read: "I come from a plane that fell in the mountains . . ." Sixteen of the original forty-five passengers on the F-227 survived its horrific crash. In the remote glacial wilderness, they camped in the plane''s fuselage, where they faced freezing temperatures, life-threatening injuries, an avalanche, and imminent starvation. As their meager food supplies ran out, and after they heard on a patched-together radio that the search parties had been called off, it seemed like all hope was lost. To save their own lives, these men and women not only had to keep their faith, they had to make an impossible decision: Should they eat the flesh of their dead friends? A remarkable story of endurance and determination, friendship and the human spirit, Alive is the dramatic bestselling account of one of the most harrowing quests for survival in modern times. "A classic in the literature of survival." — Newsweek

An acutely observed, funny and moving novel from award-winning writer Piers Paul Read

The Death of a Pope is a powerful new novel by the acclaimed British writer Piers Paul Read. Juan Uriarte, a handsome and outspoken Spanish ex-priest, seems to be the model of nonviolence and compassion for the poor and downtrodden. So why is he on trial, accused of terrorist activities? His worldwide Catholic charitable outreach program is suspected of being a front for radicals. The trial is covered by Kate Ramsay, a young British reporter, who sets out to undercover the truth about Uriarte and his work. She travels with him to Africa to see his work first hand but soon finds herself attracted to him. Meanwhile an international conspiracy is growing, one that reaches into the Vatican itself. When the death of Pope John Paul II brings the conclave that will elect Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, a terrorist plot involving blackmail, subterfuge, and mass murder begins to fall into place... a plot that could spell disaster for the Catholic Church and the world. Piers Paul Read''s powerful tale combines vivid characters, high drama, love, betrayal, faith, and redemption in a story of intrigue, of church espionage, and an attempt to destroy the longest continuous government in the world - the Papacy. The Death of a Pope races toward an unexpected and unforgettable conclusion.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem make a revolutionary discovery in this “beautifully written” thriller from a #1 New York Times–bestselling author (Ruth Rendell). John Lambert, Catholic priest and professor of biblical archaeology, returns to London from an archaeological dig in Israel—and not long after, he’s found dead, hanged in his room. It’s only the first shocking discovery for his assistant, Andrew Nash, a young friar. The second is the reason for the spiritual disillusionment that led his mentor to such a desperate act: irrefutable evidence of the skeletal remains of Jesus Christ excavated under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. The find could shake the core doctrine of the Catholic Church and destroy the very foundation of the Christian faith. But it also poses a grave threat to Nash and his associate, Israeli archaeologist Michael Dagan—because they’re not the only ones scrambling to piece together the clues to this ancient mystery. In their shadow are the KGB, the Israeli Secret Service, and an ambitious American cardinal. But are they collaborators in a diabolical hoax or coconspirators in a cover-up of the most damning discovery in history? The answer “chills the blood and makes the hair stand on end . . . confirming Read as one of our strongest novelists” (The Independent). “It’s hard to imagine a more provocative thesis,” said the New York Times of this forerunner to the biblical conspiracy thrillers of Dan Brown and Kate Mosse. On the Third Day is “an enthralling read—touch[ing] upon a number of current theological controversies” (Kirkus Reviews).

Intelligent, ambitious and a rising star in the French artillery, Captain Alfred Dreyfus appeared to have everything: family, money, and the prospect of a post on the General Staff. But his rapid rise had also made him enemies - many of them aristocratic officers in the army''s High Command who resented him because he was middle-class, meritocratic and a Jew. In October 1894, the torn fragments of an unsigned memo containing military secrets were retrieved by a cleaning lady from the waste paper basket of Colonel Maximilien von Schwartzkoppen of the German embassy in Paris. When French intelligence pieced the document back together to uncover proof of a spy in their midst, Captain Dreyfus, on slender evidence, was charged with selling military secrets to the Germans, found guilty of treason by unanimous verdict and sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil''s Island. The fight to free the wrongfully convicted Dreyfus - over twelve long years, through many trials - is a story rife with heroes and villains, courage and cowardice, dissimulation and deceit. One of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in history, the Dreyfus affair divided France, stunned the world and unleashed violent hatreds and anti-Semitic passions which offered a foretaste of what was to play out in the long, bloody twentieth century to come. Today, amid charged debates over national and religious identity across the globe, its lessons throw into sharp relief the conflicts of the present. In the hands of historian, biographer and prize-winning novelist Piers Paul Read, this masterful epic of the struggle between a minority seeking justice and a military establishment determined to save face comes dramatically alive for a new generation.

A portrait based on access to the late actor''s personal writings offers insight into his experiences as a soldier in World War II, his stage and film achievements, and his fiercely private personal life.

It is the late 18th century and Sicilian nobleman Vitello Scarpia finds himself penniless and in disgrace on the streets of Rome. After leaving his home in pursuit of a military career, his fiery passion has seen him expelled from the Spanish royal guard and left to seek his fortune in Italy; a fortune inseparably bound to the Pope, whose rule is put in question by the French Revolution. Scarpia enrolls in the papal army and is soon taken up by a countess eager to have a handsome young officer at her side. She introduces Scarpia into Roman society, and he is both enthralled and agitated by its mix of religiosity, sophistication, decadence, and intrigue. Then, on a mission to Venice, he meets the gifted, beautiful singer Floria Tosca. And as the armies of revolutionary France advance into Italy, and war and revolution engulf the whole peninsula, these two lives become entwined. Steeped in factual detail and exploring the lives--part historical, part fictional--of figures from Puccini''s famous opera, Scarpia shines a light into dusty corridors of history and dark corners of the human soul.

Alice in Exile is Piers Paul Read''s triumphant return to the fiction for which he is widely praised: romantic, dramatic, and rich with detail. It features Alice Fry--an independent woman in a world ruled by men--and the two men who love her. It is 1913 when Alice meets Edward Cobb, the eligible son of a baronet. When Alice''s father, a radical publisher, gets involved in a scandal, Edward breaks off their engagement, unaware that Alice is expecting his child. Desperate, she travels to Russia to serve as a governess for charming Baron Rettenberg, as the Russian Revolution and World War I rage on.

To chronicle the catastrophe, the author interviewed the engineers and operators on duty at the time, talked to the director, now serving a ten year sentence for negligence, visited the previously top-secret Kurchatov Institute, Moscow''s Hospital No. 6, and the once-closed city of Obninsk. The author also gained access to the transcripts of the trail of the reactor operators, the protocol of the previously secret Medical Commission, and other confidential reports. Includes 16 pages of bandw photos. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The famous British novelist and playwright Piers Paul Read presents his lively, thought-provoking reflections on wide ranging spiritual topics with his usual brilliance and insight. When this best-selling writer turns his attention to a subject he holds most dear, his Catholic faith, as well as to religious and cultural issues of our times, he provokes delight and inspiration, as well as some fury and controversy. This illuminating volume presents a selection of Read''s most elegant and memorable writings on subjects ranging from Christians and Jews, liberation theology, and The Da Vinci Code to sexual desire, saints and Pope Benedict XVI. Book jacket.

Political fable, with Karl Marx''s daughter as a main character, dealing with revolutionaries on earth and in Heaven.

Traditionally believed to be written by King Solomon himself, though later attributed to his friends and followers, the author of the Greek text is well versed in the popular philosophical, religious, and ethical writings adopted by Hellenistic Alexandria. In his introduction, Piers Paul Read contemplates this story that impressed him greatly as a child, one in which wisdom pleases God so greatly he gives Solomon everything else besides.

Michael Latham, once a leading expert in Soviet affairs, is now transcribing Russian language broadcasts for the BBC. Following the murder of a friend, he teams up with another friend and a Russian agent to infiltrate the aristocratic German Knights of the Cross - the suspected murderers.

The author of Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors draws from a palette of love, theft, politics, and murder to create a thrilling new novel. Set in 1991, after the fall of the Wall, and one year later in Moscow, The Patriot tells of a Russian security officer and an American art historian caught up in the investigation of the murder of an emigree Russian couple involved in the export of priceless icons.