Not as good as the first two, but worth the read to finish out the series. The characters were in general less believable and largely one dimensional and a few plot points and reversals of fortune strained credibility still further. More than in the fist books, the "Crusaders" (in particular the Templars) were presented as black to the more nuanced gray-to-white of other groups such as the Moors. To be fair not all Christians were painted with the same brush: the Cele De continued to "shine" as the protectors of the "Sanctus Clarus" and a variety of important relics. However, theologically the tale set off even more of my warning bells. One of the sympathetic characters stated straight out that he'd "worshiped" the Grail, and said artifact possesed some frankly magical properties not in keeping with my read of the New Testament. The Cele De sect still smacked of Gnosticism to me as well. All in all, it could have been a stronger close to a fairly decent series.
