TEMPLARS' LAST SECRET

The body of a woman is found on Bruno, Chief of Police's patch in St Denis. She was discovered with her neck broken beside the ruined Templar chateau of Commarque in the heart of the Dordogne. An accidental fall, or was she pushed? The 11th century chateau has never been associated with the fabled hidden treasure of the Templars, but a sensational story in the local press about the unknown woman's death throws light on the chateau and the cave beneath it. When a Templar scholar is found brutally tortured and left for dead, Bruno must race to find the perpetrator before they strike again, while the village of St Denis holds its breath, waiting to see if a centuries-old mystery might finally be solved and uncovered when a local journalist publishes the sensational story around the woman's death. The victim carries no identification and her fingerprints are not known to the French police or Interpol. The only clue is that her dentistry looks American, but Bruno's enquiries at local hotels and gites yield no trace of a missing foreign woman. 343pp, paperback.