Knights at the Bookshelf By Sir Knight Bruce W. Barker
The Templar’s Secret, by Thomas Madachik, Published 2014, ISBN 978-1-4931-5930-7.
T
he Templar’s Secret is about an inventor and Freemason who decodes a formula attributed to Isaac Newton and creates an invention that provides unlimited energy to consumers. Along with several Sir Knight Brothers, they build a successful company that threatens the status quo of current energy based economies and governments, triggering multiple attacks from many disparate origins for many different reasons. As a Mason, you may have often thought about the history, symbolism, and tenets of our order and considered that those elements would make a fascinating backdrop that you could include in a fictional tale. Well, Thomas Madachik has successfully done just that. The Templar’s Secret not only weaves historical and factual Masonic themes into its plot, it also incorporates many aspects of Masonry into many of its main characters. Thomas Madachik does well in addressing the many misconceptions of Masonry that are widely held by the general public by repeatedly presenting the outwardly known good works and the effects of our efforts. This story is well crafted and is a worthy amalgamation of spy thriller, government intrigue, industrial espionage, and conspiracy theory genres, with a mild love interest subplot to keep it fun and broaden the reader base. The characters are developed with a level of detail and fidelity which should be consentient with avid readers’ expectations of certain roles. This is a quick and entertaining read with many simultaneous threads. The author jumps quickly between them, leading up to what seems like a climax with multiple outcomes possible. I like reading a book where you clearly understand and even anticipate divergent paths coming together, but in which the ending is not solidly predictable before completing the book. Certainly any Mason or Knight Templar will recognize many of the references made throughout this story, appreciating the favorable explanations of the often misunderstood existence of Masonry and the Knights Templar in today’s world. However, the uninitiated will not feel excluded, as it does not require membership or inside knowledge to understand what the author intends, and the story stands well on its own without need for explanation.
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july 2014