The Cult: A Novel of Two Norman Kingdoms (The Abraxas Chronicles) (Volume 1)

--HONORABLE MENTION, FORWARD REVIEWS' 2015 BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR HISTORICAL FICTION--A meeting of two worlds. A tale of forbidden love. A chronicle of heresy and crime. Set in the era of the Third Crusade, The Cult follows the fates of three pupils of a wise and gentle English teacher. Pledged to each other, Elise and Edmond strive to keep their love alive despite great opposition. All three become caught in a web of deceit and threatened by an ancient Gnostic cult reincarnated in a new and monstrous form. One by one, each for a different reason, they come to Arab-Norman Sicily, a rich and brilliant realm where Christians, Jews, and Muslims live in peace. In cosmopolitan Palermo, minarets rise beside church towers, the Norman king keeps a harem, and Muslims work with Christian clerics to recover classic texts. Here Martin meets Khalil al-Din, the Arab scholar who will change his life. As their stories unfold, the three friends struggle against both the evil of the cult and the oppressive prohibitions of their time. Their intimate stories bring to life an epic age whose conflicts closely parallel our own.