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BIO
Raymond Khoury moved to Rye, New York, from his native Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war there in 1975. After graduating from Rye Country Day School, he returned to Lebanon to study architecture at the American University of Beirut. During his years there, in between repeated flare-ups of fighting, he illustrated several children's books for Oxford University Press's Middle East office. Khoury completed his degree just as the civil war erupted again, and was evacuated out from the city in February, 1984, by the Marine Corp's 22nd Amphibious Unit on board a Chinook helicopter.
Khoury moved to London and joined a small architecture practice. The architecture scene in the mid-80s throughout much of Europe was going through a severe downturn, and the work was far from fulfilling. He decided to explore other career options and applied to the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France. After graduating from its MBA program, he moved back to London where he joined Banque Paribas Capital Markets, selling gold-linked convertibles and other far less exotic financial instruments.
He left the world of investment banking to return to his creative roots. During a visit to the Bahamas to explore a real-estate opportunity there, he met a Wall Street banker who dabbled in the film business, developing screenplays with writers in Hollywood. Khoury bounced an idea off the banker, the idea stuck, and they agreed to develop it into a screenplay by hiring a professional screenwriter. Several conference calls later, the outlines coming back from Los Angeles weren't quite what Khoury had in mind. He decided to write an outline himself, to give the screenwriter a clearer picture of how he saw the movie. Upon receiving the outline, Khoury's partner called him up and told him, "Our man in L.A. isn't going to write this movie for us. You are. You're a writer."
Khoury wrote the screenplay, which was shortlisted for a Fulbright Fellowship in Screenwriting award that year. His next screenplay, a semi-autobiographical screenplay about his college years during the civil war, was also shortlisted for the award a year later. In 1996, he optioned the film rights to Melvyn Bragg's novel, THE MAID OF BUTTERMERE, writing the screenplay adaptation himself while completing an original screenplay, THE LAST TEMPLAR. THE MAID OF BUTTERMERE found its way to Robert DeNiro, who shortly after announced in Variety that he would be producing it and playing the lead role of Colonel Hope.
Since then, Khoury has been working as a screenwriter and producer both in London and in Los Angeles. Since the release of his international bestseller THE LAST TEMPLAR and completing work on the BBC hit show "Spooks," known as "MI:5: in the US, and the Emmy-award winning BBC series "Waking The Dead," he is now concentrating on his novels.
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INTERVIEW
 August 24, 2007
In this interview with Bookreporter.com's Joe Hartlaub, Raymond Khoury --- the author of the international bestseller THE LAST TEMPLAR --- talks about the inspiration behind his second novel, THE SANCTUARY, and further elaborates on some of the scientific elements discussed in the book, such as the pros and cons of expanding one's lifespan. He also recalls a few of his favorite childhood comic book and TV nemeses who have influenced his own literary villains, and compares and contrasts the processes of writing novels and penning screenplays.
SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read THE SANCTUARY yet, you may want to proceed with caution as some plot details are revealed in this interview.
Bookreporter.com: THE SANCTUARY is arguably the most ambitious book of the year, in topic, breadth and depth. It has its beginnings in the 18th century, involves a range of peoples and organizations from the Templars and the Phoenicians to the CIA, and concerns one of the two certainties of existence --- death --- by hypothesizing that there just might be a cure for that most terminal of conditions. Yet THE SANCTUARY is very tightly written, very straightforward in its purpose. I’ll ask you how you managed that in just a bit, but first of all, what got you started on the basic idea for the story --- that lifespans could be markedly increased and that there is a method, lost to the ages, by which it can be done?
Raymond Khoury: Years ago, when I started exploring this basic notion for another project, a friend of mine told me that her husband --- a very wealthy Texas oil man --- had just taken her to a high-powered, uber-selective retreat. There, many of the top scientists working in longevity medicine were giving presentations about the state of their research, in the hope of attracting more funding. The audience was made up of billionaires spending thousands of dollars every month on all kinds of treatments. Their attitude was, “take the money, figure it out now, the one thing I don’t have is time.” This fascinated me. A company that was pioneering telomerase IPO’ed at the time, and its stock went ballistic. The more I looked into it, the more clear it became that a “paradigm shift” had taken place in scientists’ perception of aging and death. There’s so much we don’t know about what’s out there, untapped cures that are waiting to be discovered…
BRC: One of the more intriguing figures for me in THE SANCTUARY was the “hakeem,” whose matter-of-fact brutality in the name of science was one of the more chilling aspects of the book. He reminded me in many ways of Dr. Fu Manchu, a character from my pulp-fiction-ridden childhood, who was also an evil genius, a cold-blooded scientist who also bore some physical similarities to the hakeem.
RK: I grew up reading comic books and watching a lot of TV, and although I wasn’t really thinking of Fu Manchu while creating the hakeem, there are other influences I can trace back to those worlds. One that immediately springs to mind is Ras Al-Ghul, Batman’s nemesis --- I have all the Neal Adams/Denny O’Neill comics from the ’70s that featured him and his “Lazarus Pit.” Another is --- and this one is more obscure --- Wo Fat, McGarrett’s Chinese spy-nemesis from "
Hawaii Five-0." There was a double episode that I still remember so clearly, in which McGarrett is kidnapped by Wo Fat and subjected to a Manchurian Candidate-like brainwash in a horrific chamber on a sub. Creepy stuff for an eight-year-old…
BRC: Were you by any chance a fan of Sax Rohmer, the author of the Fu Manchu novels? And if not, what authors of any genre do you feel have had the greatest influence upon your work?
RK: No, though now you’ve got me curious.
As for the most influence, it’s varied. To relax, I read Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly and Nelson DeMille, but they are more recent. The writers who most marked me, I suppose, are Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, Robert Heinlein and Alfred Bester, whose two novels I can re-read endlessly. I remember being bowled over by William Goldman’s MARATHON MAN, Ludlum’s THE BOURNE IDENTITY and Patterson's ALONG CAME A SPIDER when I first read them. Most of all, I really admire writers like Richard Matheson and Stephen King, who can write brilliantly in different genres. Goldman too --- to come up with MARATHON MAN and THE PRINCESS BRIDE…genius.
BRC: The premise of THE SANCTUARY is the existence of a method by which the human lifespan could be dramatically extended. Your characters briefly discuss what some of the consequences might be. What do you think would be the major benefit to a lifespan increased by, for example, five decades? And what would be the major adverse consequence?
RK: The benefit would be the same as what we’ve experienced over the last 50 or 100 years --- enjoying more years of life. But what these scientists are working on is extending our health span, the years during which we enjoy good health and are mentally and physically fit and active. No one wants to spend more years being old. That’s the key, and that’s what the “wear and tear” theory suggests is possible.
The adverse consequences are those which ethics panels and policy makers whip out at every opportunity, although even that’s starting to crack --- overcrowding, limited resources, the old not making way for the young. The thing is, it’s not going to happen overnight. It will be a gradual change, taking place over decades, and mankind has demonstrated a great talent for adapting to change. We’re already so radically different and live such different lives from those who came centuries, even decades, before us.
BRC: On a related note, what do you personally believe has been the most significant medical advancement of the last 10 years?
RK: A lot of room for jokes here --- I wouldn’t have my lustrous mane without Regaine (see photo) --- but I’d go with the advances in mapping out the genome and in stem cell research, which is showing so much promise, despite the hurdles blocking that avenue of research. We’ve also come a long way in understanding, predicting and pre-empting heart disease, one of our two main killers, which is a huge achievement.
BRC: Your work evidences a great deal of cultural and historical research. How do you go about gathering your sources? To what extent do you rely on assistants to do this?
RK: Sadly, I don’t rely on assistants for my research --- I don’t have any. A year ago, I hired a script editor from the last series I worked on for a week to collect some general research for the settings of the book’s historic chapters, but that was it. I like to do it myself --- it’s part of the pleasure of writing something like THE SANCTUARY. And it’s varied: Internet searches, books, talking to experts… In the case of this book, I spent months looking into the science of longevity, doing a ton of research that only ended up on a few pages of the book. But it’s key; it’s a way of thinking about the story while immersing myself in the theme, making sure it’s doable, viable.
BRC: How does your writing process evolve? Do you begin with a character or an idea first? What similarities and differences do you encounter between writing novels and screenplays? Which do you prefer, and why? And how, when you deal with topics of the breadth of those in THE SANCTUARY, do you keep on track?
RK: I start with the idea, definitely. I have to have a big theme that I’m interested in --- religion, death, longevity. From there, the plot evolves as I read up about the subject and churn it over. Then, the characters come in organically. The similarities between novels and screenplays are, for me, in the structure. I built up the story of THE SANCTUARY on several huge charts I had all running along the wall of my office, as well as in endless notes that filled two notebooks with several pages per scene --- all the main turning points, the locations and linkages between scenes, where the characters are at each point of the story, their dates of birth and death, relationships, etc. Structurally, it has to be ironclad, and the choices for the characters’ actions and reactions have to follow a clear logic. The attention to pacing is also the same in both. I try not to have anything superfluous; in a screenplay, every page costs a fortune to film, so if it isn’t crucial to the story, it’ll end up omitted from the shooting script.
The main differences are two-fold. In the book, you’re inside the characters’ heads, and can write what they’re feeling and thinking. You can't do that in a screenplay, where you can only show what the character’s doing unless you use a voice-over, which is to be avoided at all costs. The other main difference is that what I’m writing ends up in the readers’ hands, which is a HUGE satisfaction. This isn’t writing by committee; there are no compromises. A script is subjected to meetings and notes from producers, network or studio execs, and then is “interpreted” by directors who then slap on the notorious “a film by” credit. To a certain extent, this is somewhat merited, but there’s a reason why a recent study found that screenwriters in Hollywood lived, on average, several years less than directors…
BRC: After you have finished writing a novel, who is the first person after you to read it? Do you have a group of people whose judgment you value to read and critique your work?
RK: I have a handful of trusted friends who read as I write --- maybe they’ll see the first third or half of the book, then chunks as and when I write them. I value their comments and their insights tremendously. Professionally, my agents in London and in New York will then read it too, as well as my editors in both cities.
BRC: You have had a very successful career in the creative arts in a number of media. Is there anything that you wish you had done differently in starting your career? If so, what?
RK: Although I can hardly complain about where I am right now, which is pinch-me land in every respect, I do have a lot of regrets. I would have loved to have the time to design some great, or at least some memorable, buildings, but I didn’t really get a chance to in my aborted architectural career. I also still would have liked to possibly direct a movie --- ideally one I'll have written --- although the often unpleasant realities of that particular world significantly watered down that ambition.
BRC: What are you working on now, and when might readers expect to see it? On a related note, the Phoenicians are mentioned near the beginning of THE SANCTUARY. Do you have any plans for a novel utilizing their great, lost civilization as a moving force?
RK: I’m in the early stages of conceiving my next book that, in the best of worlds, would be ready to hit the stands in a year’s time or in early 2009. I’d also love to write something involving the Phoenicians --- it’s my proud heritage, after all! --- and it may well happen.
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INTERVIEW
 April 28, 2006
Amidst the current popularity of religious-themed fiction, two novels --- THE LAST TEMPLAR and THE TEMPLAR LEGACY --- have both become international bestsellers. The authors of these two books, Raymond Khoury and Steve Berry, spoke with Bookreporter.com's Carol Fitzgerald, Joe Hartlaub and Wiley Saichek about the appeal of speculative history novels, as well as the sheer coincidence of simultaneously writing and publishing thrillers on similar topics. They also discuss the challenges of researching and accurately portraying the past, and share their thoughts on Dan Brown's recent court case.
Bookreporter.com: When did you each become aware that the other was writing a book involving the Templars?
Raymond Khoury: Almost exactly a year ago, when my agents were sending out the manuscript of THE LAST TEMPLAR to publishers here in London, they also showed it to a couple of publishers in New York, and the editor at Ballantine came back saying this was most certainly his kind of book, but that it was too close in topic and spirit --- though not in story --- to a new work by one of his favorite authors, Steve Berry. This kind of terrified me, as I quickly discovered Steve was a well-established, bestselling author. I finally got hold of a copy a few weeks ago and took it on holiday with me over Easter, reading it on a remote island in the Maldives --- and loved it.
Steve Berry: I first became aware of Raymond's book last fall. THE TEMPLAR LEGACY was turned in, finished, and in production at Ballantine when my editor called and told me about THE LAST TEMPLAR. He then sent me an advanced readers copy and I read it. Always good to check out the competition.
BRC: Have you met or corresponded?
SB: When Raymond debuted at #5 on the New York Times list, I emailed his publicist with congratulations. They forwarded my note to him and we've been emailing ever since. Since we've stayed side by side on nearly all the bestseller lists, it was fun ribbing each other. It seemed like a way for both of us to relieve the anxiety the experience was generating. He even sent me a cheesy photo of him at the beach with my book.
RK: It was great to receive Steve's congratulatory email when my book hit the New York Times list. It's not the kind of email I'd ever gotten from anyone in the film world! We knew it was looking good, but getting on that list wasn't something I was expecting to get on the first week out. It was great to share the weekly NYT bestsellers list panic and the curse of increased expectations with someone who was feeling the same thing --- and, amazingly, with two books that were directly related. We've been emailing ever since. It's actually pretty amazing to think that we were both inspired to write books that have so much in common thematically, and yet are so different story-wise. They were written at widely different stages of our lives, at different times, and in different continents, and yet they have come out within weeks of each other and sit on the same bestseller lists. Talk about synchronicity… It's truly a unique experience, and it's been a blast.
BRC: What was the impetus for you to write a novel based upon the 13th century and the Templars? Have you always been interested in this period of history? When did you first become interested in it?
SB: I've always been interested in the Templars and Rennes-le-Chateau is likewise fascinating. When I was searching for a new idea in 2003, this story came to mind. But I wanted to portray the Templars accurately, not as Hollywood stereotypes. Of course, some liberties have to be taken to keep the plot moving, but I wanted readers to understand what the Templars actually were. We need to get away from the Holy Grail and fantasy aspects of their existence. They were, in fact, a remarkable organization that was way ahead of their time, creating many concepts that we take for granted today.
RK: It all happened purely by chance. Back in 1996, I'd written two screenplays that were kind of small and personal, and I felt like writing something bigger and more epic. I visited friends in Fontainebleau in France, thinking about what to write next, and one of them was a history buff and told me about the Templars. I didn't know anything about them at the time, but they're a huge deal in France --- a big part of its history and its lore. As I read up about them that weekend, it quickly became obvious to me that this was an exceptional group of people who played a pivotal role in something that still resonates today, and their legends were great fodder for fiction. A year and a half later, I had my screenplay, which eventually became this novel.
BRC: What do you think it is about speculative history novels that are striking a chord with readers? Why do you think that THE TEMPLAR LEGACY and THE LAST TEMPLAR have resonated so strongly with readers?
RK: The appeal of the genre is easy to explain: page-turning thrillers with a lot of interesting information to discover, the secrets of the past, myths and legends… It's interesting, it's epic, and it's entertaining --- and it makes a change from serial killers and forensics. Dan Brown's success obviously made people aware of the genre, much like John Grisham's THE FIRM put the whole legal thriller genre on the map 15 years ago. I do think the novels that have resonated particularly strongly, though, are those that deal with religion and --- more specifically --- the hidden history (or possible hidden history) of the Catholic Church. This is more a reflection of our times, when religion is back on the front pages in a big way.
SB: Readers enjoy the mixture of history, secrets, conspiracy, action, and exotic settings. All four of my thrillers, THE AMBER ROOM, THE ROMANOV PROPHECY, THE THIRD SECRET and THE TEMPLAR LEGACY, are just that ---- international suspense thrillers --- and there's nothing new about the concept. It's been around for 60-plus years. What's happened over the past three years is that the genre is once again popular. Thank goodness. That's what I like to read and write.
BRC: Do you find that reactions to your respective novels vary from country to country? Is there a wide variance of opinion regarding your work even within a country?
RK: I haven't really seen a difference in reaction across borders. It's kind of hard to judge, though, given that my sampling is limited to the anecdotal evidence or the reviews and comments of a few people, which isn't really significant when a book is selling --- and continues to sell --- hundreds of thousands of copies. I've been fortunate enough to have my book find an audience in every country it's been published, so I guess the interest in the subject matter and the reactions to the book are pretty universal right now, which is amazing.
SB: My four thrillers are now published in 34 countries and 31 languages, and I receive emails daily from around the world. It's particularly gratifying for me to hear from readers in India, Tasmania, Indonesia, and China who have read my stories and like them. I've seen no real variance in opinions, but they do enjoy pointing out any errors I made in language and locations. But that's okay. I don't mind. I want to get it right. Even Raymond himself sent me one of those emails. He says my French needs work. He offered to fix the errors, and I told him to go for it.
BRC: Both THE TEMPLAR LEGACY and THE LAST TEMPLAR mention, in areas other than the novel itself, the quote of Pope Leo X, "It has served us well, this myth of Christ." Personally, how do you feel about this quote? Were you raised in a traditional Christian faith? What sort of reaction have you received from Christian readers of your respective novels?
SB: This quote appears all over the place. I've received about 15 emails from readers who tell me that I have it absolutely wrong and they have provided me the "correct" quote. Here's the problem. All 15 give me different wording. None of them agree. So who knows? Leo X was probably the most corrupt man to ever serve as pope, so him saying something like this would not be out of character. Was it said? We'll never know, but it makes for great fiction. I was born, raised, and educated Catholic. Altar boy and all that stuff. The religion fascinates me, though I no longer actively practice it.
RK: The quote is infamous, and obviously, we'll never really know what the truth about it is. All of history is open to interpretation and conjecture, which is the basis of the novel: what can we believe about events that happened hundreds, even thousands, of years ago? Even today, with everything that's available to record events, you can still find widely conflicting accounts about pretty much anything you choose. This is great for fiction writers --- those "what ifs are what feeds our imagination. Personally, I wasn't raised in a particularly religious family, and I'm not a practicing Catholic, and yet researching the book was sometimes uncomfortable, even for me. The reactions from religious readers of the book, the few I've seen, have been mixed: some liked it and found it uplifting, while others understandably thought it was sacrilegious…
BRC: What do you think happened to the Templar treasure? Do you think that the Templars still exist today? Do they have any influence, or are they biding their time?
SB: Who knows? All we do know is that not a piece of their wealth or a scrap of their knowledge was ever found. Remnants of the Templars certainly still exist in Masonic and other organizations who have adopted parts of their ritual. But as to the real thing, that's doubtful. But it wouldn't be great if they were hold up in a Pyrenees abbey waiting and watching.
RK: I would have said I'm pretty sure they're sadly no longer among us, except that after reading Steve's book, I could be wrong --- his present-day Templars are pretty convincing. As for their treasure, the legend of those galleys loaded with Templar treasure and sailing off into the night from La Rochelle is pretty inspiring, and I like to think that what they managed to spirit away is still out there, somewhere, in some desolate windswept place, waiting for some intrepid, stubborn misfit to find it.
BRC: A number of the situations we face today arise from events that took place in the late 13th century. What do each of you think was the most crucial event that occurred at that time, in terms of its influence on our current events?
RK: I'm tempted to say it's the birth of the Mafia in Sicily in 1282, but that's probably not what you had in mind! The 13th century event that sticks in my mind is the Children's Crusade. How insane was that? Fifty thousand boys and girls, the oldest of them no more than 12, marching off to liberate the holy land from the heathens. Less than 200 made it back, which is a higher number than I would have expected. Have we moved on that much since then? I'm not so sure… I suppose the fall of Jerusalem was the most crucial, in that it affected the subsequent history of an area that had been turbulent and hotly contested before, and remains so today. Had it remained under Crusader control, the development of religion in the area undoubtedly would have been affected --- for better or for worse --- and I suspect it would have had a huge influence on the state of the world today.
SB: Tough to say. That was a pivotal century in many ways. I think Barbara Tuchman answered this question best in her excellent work, A DISTANT MIRROR. Though she deals with the 14th century, readers should check out her work and learn exactly how that time is so reflective of now.
BRC: Both of you write novels that require a vast amount of research. Would either of you care to comment on the outcome of Dan Brown's trial in England? If the verdict had not been in Brown's favor, how could that have affected the historical fiction genre?
SB: There was never any doubt in my mind what that verdict would be. That lawsuit had no merit from the start. Zero. Now, as to generating worldwide publicity for both the plaintiff's and the defendant's books ---- on that count, the whole endeavor was a resounding success. You have to wonder if that was the plaintiff's motive from the start. Certainly Dan did not require any more publicity.
RK: I agree with Steve: I didn't doubt the outcome either, though in this age of spin, you can't help but be cynical about the timing of it all. I mean, Dan Brown acknowledged their book in the actual narrative of his own book! And that book was based on conjecture that had been common knowledge in France for years. Historical fiction is based on research --- it's the real fun part of writing books like these; each story becomes a journey of discovery for the author too. It's either that, or we have to turn into historian-slash-novelists, which would mean bringing out a novel every ten years…
BRC: What are the most challenging aspects of writing a book that is set both in the present and in the past?
RK: Doing the research to get the period details right (which isn't easy when writing about things that happened over 700 years ago, trust me --- there isn't even a definitive description of the Templars' flag, to say nothing about their ships!), and to a lesser extent, getting the right balance. Finding this balance was a discovery process for me, really, as it only came together during the writing; it wasn't planned that way. The parts of the story set in the past were initially just a series of brief flashbacks. As I got deeper and deeper into the book, I found myself wanting to know more about what happened to Martin and his gang, and ultimately those chapters grew.
SB: Weaving those two together and getting it right --- that's always tough --- while at the same time, remembering it's a novel and the primary mission is to entertain. Lots of balloons to hold under the water at the same time.
BRC: What are you working on now and when can readers expect to see it?
SB: Another Cotton Malone adventure coming in February 2007. There will be two more after that in 2008 and 2009. Hope folks like him.
RK: A new novel, which will come out sometime in 2007. Different characters, different issues, different worlds, but still with a mix of history and present day, and --- with a bit of luck --- a decent read.
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INTERVIEW
January 20, 2006
Bookreporter.com's Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight Team (Carol Fitzgerald, Joe Hartlaub and Wiley Saichek) interviewed veteran screenwriter Raymond Khoury about his novel, THE LAST TEMPLAR. Khoury discusses how he first became interested in the mysterious order of knights on which the book is based, and reveals the long and arduous process of writing and publishing this debut work of fiction. He also comments on the recent popularity of religion-themed thrillers, compares and contrasts screenplays with novels, and even recommends a few titles for further study on the period's history.
Bookreporter.com: The Knights Templar and their alleged successors have been at the foundation of many conspiracy theories, ranging from the assassination of John Kennedy to the Vatican bank scandals. What fascinates people about this small group that existed over 600 years ago?
Raymond Khoury: The fall of the Templars in the late 1200s and early 1300s was a huge story that really captured the imagination of people across Europe, and interest in the Templars hasn't waned since --- far from it. We're talking about a political conspiracy to bring down a small group of mysterious people who had great wealth and power, who controlled vast tracts of land across continents, who were savage warriors as well as philosophers and mystics, who traveled to the East and discovered profound secrets, who were said to possess magical, diabolical powers. In the thirteenth century, that was a pretty compelling story that got everyone talking. Over the centuries, writers from Dante to Voltaire have explored and expanded on the Templar myth, regarding them as kindred spirits, noble victims of persecution, champions of an alternative point of view to the prevailing tyrannical worldview of the Church. In our sanitized, rationalized world, that myth is still as compelling as it was back then.
BRC: What sparked your fascination with the Templar Knights? Did you study religion or history in college, or have these subjects always fascinated you independently, outside the classroom?
RK: I'd just finished writing a small, semi-autobiographical screenplay and felt like writing something very different: something bigger, more epic, mythic. I was on holiday in France when I came across a history book about the Templars in a friend's library. He and I talked about them, and he knew the subject well. I read up on them, and the story quickly took shape from there.
BRC: A good deal of THE LAST TEMPLAR deals with the Crusades. Have the Crusades been a long-standing interest of yours? What texts did you rely upon while you were weaving fact and fiction into your narrative?
RK: I guess that in the last twenty years or so, I've become more fascinated by the Crusades and their contemporary resonance --- this concept of armies of God and the absurdities that entails; the fact that this same conflict is still playing itself out in one way or another, to this day. The ongoing radicalization and collision of Islam and Christianity, East and West, in which religion was used as a surrogate for that most basic human failing --- greed --- is all very much a part of our lives now. I've been keenly aware of it ever since Khomeini kicked the Shah out of Iran back in 1979 and pretty much changed the world we live in. It's a conflict that's nowhere near its conclusion.
As far as books are concerned, I can recommend many great titles about the Crusades and the Templars. Steven Runciman's A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES is a hugely readable and detailed account of the Crusades. Helen Nicholson's THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR is great as a general history of the Templars, as is Piers Paul Read's THE TEMPLARS. Peter Partner's THE MURDERED MAGICIANS, which may be a bit harder to find, is more unique; it's a fantastic piece of research into how the myth of the Templars spread and survived. I'd also recommend Sir Walter Scott's THE TALISMAN, not for its historical validity --- it's a work of fiction, and not the easiest book to read either --- but for its inspiration and great detail.
BRC: How did you research THE LAST TEMPLAR? Did you visit each of the locales that are featured in the book, or were you already familiar with them before you started writing? What was the most fascinating historical tidbit that you were unaware of prior to your research on the book?
RK: I was lucky --- I've lived in Europe for over twenty years, and I lived in New York prior to that, so a lot of the locations that made their way into the story are places I've been to and know reasonably well. As far as historical tidbits are concerned, Jefferson's Bible, which I was unaware of before writing the book, is something that really took me by surprise and fascinated me. And finding out that Prince Henry The Navigator, the godfather of the astrolabe, also happened to be the head of a Portuguese military order that traced its origins back to the Templars, was one of those magical little moments that are hugely satisfying.
BRC: Chapter one of THE LAST TEMPLAR was captivating. We were especially impressed with the pacing. How long did you plot out this scene before you sat down to write it?
RK: Having worked as a screenwriter for the last ten years, I think in visual and film terms, and I could see that chapter unspool so clearly, as if I was sitting in a theatre watching it. I'd already seen it in my mind before sitting down to write it. So I'm going to be really annoying here and say it just wrote itself, which is true. Sorry!
BRC: Tess Chaykin is an archaeologist. Is archaeology an avid interest of yours as well? Have you participated in archaeological digs?
RK: I wouldn't say it was an avid interest of mine before I started working on the story. But when I was growing up, we had a very close family friend who was full of life and constantly leaving her home in Manhattan to go on long digs to Turkey, Jordan and Egypt, always coming back with all these great stories and a huge buzz. She was completely devoted to her work and I'm sure it's something that stuck with me.
BRC: We were fascinated about the multigeared rotor encoder. Was this particular machine fictional or is such a decoder rumored to be floating around the Vatican's treasures?
RK: The rotor encoder does exist --- the army used it in WWII, but the earliest versions of that technology that we know of aren't nearly as old as the Templars. I don't know any rumors of any such device being tucked away in some Vatican crypt, but that doesn't mean it isn't there...
BRC: THE DA VINCI CODE and other thrillers involving religion have drawn criticism in addition to strong sales. Do you have any concerns about how your Christian readers, particularly Catholics, will react to the novel? Why do you feel so many readers are interested in this mix of history, crime and religion?
RK: I really don't have any worries on that front. Some of the novels that have been criticized have proposed a definitive, alternative history as the basis of their storyline --- descendants of Jesus walking among us, for instance --- but people seem to forget that we're talking about novels, not academic texts. I don't think religious readers of my book will find it hugely controversial. Sure, it may surprise them; they may discover things in it that they perhaps weren't aware of, that might make them uncomfortable, but they're things that are historically true and widely accepted as historical fact. But ultimately, I believe the book is uplifting and spiritually affirming --- and I'd urge anyone reading the book to read the last chapter carefully.
As far as the mix of history, crime and religion --- I'm sure the times we live in, the rise of fundamentalism and the polarization of the big religions, the conflicts raging around us, science challenging faith on a daily basis, our becoming better informed and more questioning, it's all part of it. It's a genre that's been around for years, just like straight crime fiction or legal thrillers, but it's a genre that's now coming into its own, energized by THE DA VINCI CODE's success, which is great.
BRC: What is the biggest challenge of writing a historical novel? What is the most rewarding aspect of writing in this genre?
RK: I guess the biggest challenge is making sure the historical parts of it stand up to scrutiny and feel right. Even though I'm writing fiction, I do believe I have a responsibility to my readers to write accurately when I'm writing chapters set in the past. As far as the Crusades are concerned, it's not easy to find reliable information about the small details that make all the difference. Even something as straightforward as the Templars' flag is still open to academic debate. But that challenge is also the most rewarding aspect of writing in this genre: it's a journey of discovery for me. I wasn't and still am far from being an expert in Crusader life or in thirteenth-century Tuscan mining towns, but creating a world that could have existed, and populating it with compelling characters who could have lived through what I've dreamt up for them, is a really gratifying way to spend one's day.
BRC: You are a veteran screenwriter, and much of THE LAST TEMPLAR is cinematic in presentation. Did you first envision THE LAST TEMPLAR as a film, or did you instead find that your experience as a screenwriter bled over into your writing of the novel?
RK: I first wrote THE LAST TEMPLAR as a screenplay ten years ago. I was just starting out and it was only the third screenplay I'd written. A friend read it and thought it would make a great book, which I agreed with wholeheartedly, as you can't really delve deeply into the issues at the core of the story in a movie --- even less so in a mainstream movie --- as this was intended to be. So my friend gave it to a book agent he knew, one thing led to another, and pretty soon I was flown to New York and offered a huge advance for a book that would be based on my screenplay. I was in seventh heaven: their plans for the book were very flattering, and they wanted to buy the film rights. It was all a writer's dream come true until, half an hour into the meeting, the publisher casually mentioned a small caveat: "Oh, and you know, all that stuff about religion? Let's lose that. Let's turn it into a hunt for treasure --- you know, gold, jewels, that kind of thing."
I was stunned. The whole core of the book, its heart and soul, would be gone. I had put so much into writing it, it was a huge part of my life, and I couldn't see the interest in the story they were proposing. Though I was under a lot of pressure to accept the deal --- I hadn't yet sold a single dollar's worth of writing --- I couldn't do it, and I said no. No other publishers were approached, and everyone was annoyed with me for passing up the opportunity, so I flew back home to London, thinking of giving up on writing and going back to architecture. But then, one of the UK's top film producers had managed to get hold of my screenplay, and although he didn't end up buying it, as he thought the movie would be too expensive and controversial for his company, he told me to let him know if I wanted to write anything else. I ended up selling them several original screenplays. With my screenwriting career up and running, THE LAST TEMPLAR sat there on my shelf all that time, waiting for its day. Every few months, someone would call up out of the blue and ask about it.
Finally, in 1999, I moved to the William Morris Agency. The book agent there, Eugenie Furniss, read the screenplay and told me, "You know, you really have to write that book, it'll make a wonderful novel. Just sit down and do it, I know you can do it." To her endless credit, she kept calling me every few months, asking if I'd started. In September 2002, after finishing a long screenwriting project and feeling I was now ready for it, I started writing THE LAST TEMPLAR, my first novel. It was very different, and far more satisfying, than anything I'd ever done.
As a novelist, my screenwriting experience has definitely bled over into the writing of the book. It's how I think, it's how I tell stories: I see them, I can imagine them on a screen as I'm writing them. Screenwriting is a great discipline because of how ruthless it is as an editor. We live in fear of seeing our precious words and scenes ending up on the cutting room floor, so anything that's written has to be there for a reason, and it'd better be a good one.
BRC: What are the advantages (and disadvantages) of writing a novel over writing a screenplay? What has been the most surprising part of the screenwriting-to-novel writing transition?
RK: Writing screenplays and novels are hugely different, surprisingly so, actually. In a novel, you have the luxury of being inside your characters' heads, and of being able to describe their thoughts and feelings to your audience --- your readers. You can't do that in a screenplay; it's all about what you can show on the screen. You even avoid describing it in the screenplay itself. Also, as I said earlier, although I tried to be as ruthless a self-editor in the book as I do in my screenplays, the breadth and scope of a novel does allow you to expand on ideas and conversations in a way you could never do in a screenplay. It's a real luxury. The huge luxury, though, is that I wrote the novel for myself, without any expectations. I knew that if it got published, what I wrote would end up in the hands of readers, word for word. It's not a collaborative exercise, which is a polite way of describing screenwriting --- what you write is changed and compromised, for better or for worse, by a small army of producers, directors, actors and studio executives who sometimes have wildly contradictory points of view. There was no compromise here, no committee, and for a screenwriter, that's heaven. The most surprising part for me was, I guess, how much I enjoyed it, how much I loved taking my time to write it and having it completely take over my life.
BRC: Have you always enjoyed the suspense/thriller genre? What authors do you enjoy reading in it? What writers --- both television and prose of any genre --- have inspired you?
RK: I'm an escapist --- I need stories, I get bored easily. If I'm watching or reading something, I need to be transported out of the mundane and into something that I could never experience in my life. Having said that, I'm a huge Harlan Coben fan, so that might just be wishful thinking. Inspirations: Alfred Bester is a huge one. He only wrote two novels, but both are consistently in any top-ten science fiction novel list. They're such unique and original stories. Hemingway, Jack Finney, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Philip Dick... A book I have to mention, though, is Carlos Ruiz Zafon's THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, which I read recently --- a really inspired piece of writing, just staggeringly compelling.
BRC: What are you working on now, what can you tell us about it and when can readers expect to see it?
RK: I'm finishing up a few more scripts for the next season of "Spooks" (it's called "MI-5" in the US. We started shooting the new series yesterday), as well as a couple of pilots for new shows, and the mini-series adaptation of THE LAST TEMPLAR for NBC, before settling down to write my next book that Dutton will also publish. It's an adventure thriller set in both the past and the present, with something at its core that's always fascinated me and that I can't wait to explore in more detail...
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