I had a few hours to kill in the airport at Lima on our way back from Peru, so I walked into the airport book store. All the stores at airports are very expensive, including book stores, but they are a very good way to pass some time. Unfortunately, these stores don't have many quality books and are stocked mostly with time-fillers like thrillers and mystery page-turning books (by Grisham, King, Coben, Baldacci, Brown and co) This kind of makes sense, I guess, because this was exactly the type of book I was looking for.
"The Last Templar" was one of several (I counted about 4) books which boasted something about "The Da Vinci Code" on their back covers. It seems to be a common theme lately - whip up a quick plot with many unexpected twists, pepper it with some of the many mysteries early Christianity has to offer, and you have a book.
The book itself was everything I expected it to be. A very fast-moving plot, completely shallow characters, lots of "exciting surprises", a love story, and some interesting historic tales. I can't say I liked it, but I can't say I hated it either. The best would be to say that it served its purpose - and helped me pass the time in the airports and on flights back home.
It's difficult to refrain from a comparison with Da Vinci Code. I found The Last Templar to be better at least in once sense - it had far fewer twists, and the plot was more linear and logical. On the other hand, some of the twists it had weren't very reasonable or believable - especially in the end, it appeared as if the author really wanted a certain ending and brutally bended the plot to eventually reach it.
And by the way, the theological discussion that took part in the last part of the book was actually quite interesting - perhaps I found it to be so because it was close to my own feelings on the subject.
Eli Bendersky's website