The Black Rood (The Celtic Crusades #2)
The Celtic Crusades is a trilogy of stories about a noble Scottish  family whose successive generations venture to the Holy Land at the time of the  Crusades to retrieve sacred relics. In thefirst book,The Iron Lance,  Murdo Ranulfson went to Jerusalem and brought back the iron lance used at the  crucifixion. Now Duncan, Murdo's son, must find and preserve the Black Rood--a  piece of the true cross. As inThe Iron Lance, the main narrative is  framed by the memoirs of Gordon Murray, nineteenth century scion of the ancient  Scottish clan and member of a Christian secret society whose mission is to bring  the world back to the true path.This middle volume follows a format familiar to fantasy readers: an unformed  youth leaves home to find himself and fulfill his destiny. In his travels  through distant and dangerous lands, our hero rescues and is rescued by a series  of quirky characters who join his quest, encountering divine visions, politics  in the court of the Caliph, and cult assassins. He returns from his adventures  older and wiser, triumphantly clutching the Black Rood, and accompanied, as an  added bonus, by a new and beautiful wife.Lawhead sprinkles his tale with delicious hints about revelations regarding the  potential offspring of Jesus, which, if expanded upon in the final volume,  threaten to elevate this fiction from competent to genuinely intriguing.--Luc Duplessis