The Religion: A Novel
Starred Review.Willocks, a novelist (Bad City  Blues) and screenwriter (Sin),  strikes gold with this epic account of the Turkish siege of Malta in 1565—the  first of a planned trilogy featuring Mattias Tannhauser, the son of a Saxon  blacksmith. Young Tannhauser is kidnapped by Muslim raiders and trained as a  holy warrior before winning his release and settling in Sicily, where he  becomes a prosperous arms dealer. His comfortable life is interrupted by the  arrival of Contessa Carla La Penautier, a young widow who uses her considerable  charms (and title) to recruit Tannhauser to help her find Orlandu, the bastard  son she was forced to abandon at birth 12 years earlier. Arriving on Malta,  where Carla believes her son is, Tannhauser and Carla get caught in the Turkish  attack on the Christian enclave. Meanwhile, Orlandu's father, Ludovico  Ludovici, a monk and feared inquisitor, has returned to Malta with hopes of  bringing Malta under papal control. Tannhauser has to find Orlandu, unmask the  scheming and unscrupulous Ludovici, survive vicious combat against the Turks,  win Carla's heart and find a way to escape the "island of fanatics and fools."  In Tannhauser, Willocks has created a dazzling hero whose debut will leave  readers eager for the next installment.(May)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.