La orden del temple Book

I've been reading for decades and love thrillers / archaeological / religious history books... how did I skip this one? Who knows... I'm a fickle nut to crack. March '21 was all about catching up in this sub-genre. I had high hopes in the beginning... the language was simple yet meaningful, it explained everything with the proper amount of detail, and it offered a good balance or drama and history. Somewhere in the middle it faltered and I struggled a bit. The ending pulled the book back together, and I will read the next in series.

Overall, I found the characters a bit dull. FBI Agent Sean was smart but had little personal story to attach myself to his success. Archaeologist Tess seemed like just a mom visiting the museum to suddenly becoming an expert who had to solve the puzzle for the sake of her kid. Truthfully, unless the author plans to use her child and ex-husband as a major plot for the next book, that part of the story was weak. It was supposed to endear us to her, but she sent her kid away with her mother and then basically forgot about them for weeks. The diving scenes while imaginative and somewhat interesting were too long and had minimal impact from the storm until the end. I felt it needed more drama and a real sense of -- how had no one else ever discovered this before?

Those were the negatives. On the positive side... wow, I learned a lot more about religion's intersections with the Crusades and New Testament. The book's inspired me to do some research on how Islam, Judaism, and Christianity come together in the past centuries. I found myself questioning things I believed in, and I also said, we need religion in order to keep people behaving properly. But is that always true? It worked in the past, but it doesn't now. Today, religious is used to spew hatred, not love (as the political aspect, I mean). I saw both sides in this book, so for that alone, it's a good read. I end up around 3.5 stars. It balanced itself out and I enjoyed it but not rushing to read because of the the suspenseful nature. I plan to read more because I feel like the book taught me something, and it also was a fun read. That's always positive!