Perdition by James Jackson (John Murray £12.99) (From Gazette & Herald)

Perdition by James Jackson (John Murray £12.99)

9:50am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Books By Bill Spence

IT is 1291 and Jerusalem, the Holy City, has long been held by those of the Muslim faith, but the Crusaders still have an army to defend their Christian faith within the Holy Land.

Sultan Qalawun, of the Egyptian Mameluks, holds dominance in the region and now sees his opportunity to rid that part of the world of the Crusader armies forever.

This is the story of the Christian knights at the last stand of Acre. We see the Hospitellier, the court dwarf, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, but the two characters who weave them together are Roger de Flor, an adventurer who makes a fortune by saving the women from the town and his ‘adopted’ 14-year-old boy Benedict, who becomes a spy and finds his calling fighting for the only home he has known.

We see how war turns friends into enemies when Hazzim, Benedict’s companion blames him for the death of his family simply because he holds the same faith as the assassins and opportunists who did the ghastly deed; we witness human character at its worst and at its best.

Among the carnage that surrounds them, the heroic Crusaders still believe that something can be salvaged from their final defeat.

This is a fine story of history, war and the men who make it; James Jackson builds unforgettable, strong characters who are of their time and yet seem to linger into the Holy Land of present day.