A funny story that plays out like a Hallmark movie.

The copyright of this book is 1945. This is in the decade of 1940-1949 when I was born (1948).

I read this book to understand the Knights Templar and their founding. It covers both of these in historical detail. The book also covers the myths, legends, and rumors about the treasures they supposedly recovered during their reign as crusaders for the Popes. It answered all my questions about them.

Beautiful illustrations. Moving story with a twist at the end

I think this book could be considered a mystery because Jessi has to figure out who is sabatogeing her. There is evidence, suspects, and results. It's very exciting and dramatic.

(2012 623pg edition) A prime example of the turning point into modern comics, "Knightfall" ages slightly better than its contemporary "Death of Superman". Although there is larger over-arching story-line, the desperate individual titles (Batman, Detective Comics, Shadow of the Bat) retain their own creative teams. As such the art lacks consistency through-out to the point where character models are vastly different from chapter to chapter. It is easy to see why such broad comic book events have garnered criticism of pretension, there are enough context-clues to make this a jumping on point, even if the "Batman: Prelude to Knightfall" collection (ironically published 6 years later in 2018) is highly recommended for prior reading.

While a continuation of the Bill Hodges story (book 2 of 3) he doesn't enter into the story until the back-half. The front half is all set up; the theft of $20,000 and priceless manuscripts and subsequent murder of the reclusive author at the hands of a maniacal fanatic, the obsessive's subsequent arrest for an unrelated crime, and many decades later the discovery of the berried treasure, an apparent miracle in the eyes of a young man whose family desperately needs one. King methodically sets up all the dominos, and puts all the pieces in place, clearly foreshadowing the Rube Goldberg conclusion, but it is still an enjoyable ride. One can't help but feel like this novel is an tantalizing amuse bouche served between a particularly delicious appetizer and a potentially dubious entree; While this and the previous instalment have been straight thriller suspense (not mysteries per say as the audience knows the killers), the epilog hints that the third and final instalment will have more traditional Stephen King themes of ESP and/or supernatural horror.

I Loved the book!

Movie with color in title

7/27-8/6