Books like The Lost Testament — picked by fans

The rich history of the Knights Templar, their fall from incredible wealth and power in the fourteenth century, and the mystery behind the undiscovered treasure they supposedly left behind, lay a wondrous landscape upon which Steve Berry sets his first Cotton Malone thriller.

From its opening violent robbery attempt to the twists Malone encounters as he figures out just what the Templars left, and the potentially world-changing impact it could have, the tension perfectly intersects with the history. And it has the three key plot components to a great story in this mixed-genre: intriguing puzzles, huge secrets, and huge stakes.

Sam Bourne (a pseudonym of British author Jonathan Freedland) is an unfairly neglected writer of religious conspiracy thrillers. It’s difficult to recommend just one of Bourne’s books; they are, without fail, perfect examples of the ‘Dan Brown’ genre of fiction. However, The Last Testament is an excellent place to start. Here, Bourne manages to seamlessly meld modern geopolitics with ancient religious mythology. As the protagonists hunt for a stolen relic from the time of Abraham, its significance for peace or war in the Bible lands becomes clear. Hold on to your hats with this one!

I may be uncommon in my likes and dislikes, but I’m a fan of carefully constructed prose. I prefer the challenge of interpretation, to be left without all the facts, to be enticed, teased, and misled. For me, author Simon Toyne does all this, and more. His Sancti trilogy begins with the epitome Sanctus. The plot, concerning an ancient secret passed down through generations of monks, is complex, sometimes disturbing, and always compelling. Toyne’s writing, for me, is both intelligent and dynamic, exactly how this genre should be done!

I’ve chosen this final recommendation because it is a little different from the standard religious conspiracy thriller. I love John Case’s writing (actually a husband and wife collaboration). Although The Genesis Code from this pair could be regarded as a better example of the genre, I prefer The Eighth Day because it deviates from the usual strictly Christian or Islamic subject matter. Plus, refreshingly, it doesn’t make the main character a superhero of espionage, an out-of-control academic, or a swaggering investigative journalist. It involves a demonic tribe in the hinterlands of Turkey and a billionaire’s megalomania. Be prepared for some surprising twists! Dark, fast-paced, and full of intrigue. 

I love this book, and not just because it is one of the few church archaeology books to mention graffiti. This book takes a very different approach to churches than most volumes you will have come across, as it quite literally strips them back to their bare bones. This is the deep history of the parish church, laid bare in the stones. Rodwell is a recognised expert in his field, and understands churches in ways that few others do - and after reading this you will never look at a medieval church in quite the same way again. 

This well-illustrated and highly readable book (available in hardback and paperback) is a comprehensive discussion of archaeological evidence for sacred buildings in late Iron Age and Roman Britain: ranging from grand Classical public sanctuaries, such as the temple of Claudius at Colchester, to rural, more intimate shrines, such as the temple dedicated to Apollo Cunomaglus at Nettleton in Wiltshire. Many sanctuaries, particularly in south-west England, seem purposefully to have been built within a day’s walk of each other and (sometimes, perhaps) within sight of one another, and it is tempting to see these ‘chains of sanctity’ as pilgrim routes, akin to the Camino trails of southern France and northern Spain. Reconstruction drawings in this book cause the ruins of Roman Britain’s shrines to spring into life, and make it easy to imagine what it must have been like to visit and worship at these holy places. The finds, also, tell… show more.

Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, while driving home during a blizzard, becomes disorientated and loses her way on the backcountry roads of Northumberland in England. Off the beaten track she finds a car abandoned, one door open, and a baby in the back seat. I can’t imagine anything more alarming. Where are the mother and father? When she takes the child with her, Vera realizes she is mere feet from her father’s ancestral home. Hector was the black sheep of the Stanhope Clan. The place is lit up and welcoming but Vera’s cousin was not expecting her, but invited guests for a dinner party and certainly not a baby. Then to discover the child’s mother murdered on their grounds. I fell in love with Vera in the first book and want to be just like her when I grow up. I like the police procedural rhythm of these books and… show more.

Caerphilly, VA, is utterly fictional, but you would never know it. I love visiting Andrews’ little town not only for the crazy characters, but the sense of heart and what a community could be if decent people were willing to work at it.

Even in the midst of some pretty nefarious behavior one is more likely to associate with small Southern towns, in this one, Andrews came up with an absolutely fabulous resolution that really speaks to how goodness and kindness can overcome even the worst of behavior. 

To begin with, I was immediately drawn to this novel because (bless the author) it is located in my own hometown. For those in New York or Paris, this may not be a big deal; but if you live in a relatively small Canadian city, that’s quite exciting. The main character, Joanne Kilbourn, was also named for me. And yes, I have thanked Gail Bowen for this gift. 

All right, that’s not actually true, but one can dream. Joanne is a strong but gentle cozy detective with intense motherly instincts and an extremely sharp mind. I adore her.

I guess I’s not a coincidence that this series of fiction books are written by the same writers as the previous one, since both of them have the same high quality in their content and are grammatically so well focused. 

The protagonist is Lola Lago, a detective who will solve a case per book.

The books range from level A1 to level B1 and come with an audiobook. The length of the stores is perfect (45-60 pages) and the format light enough to feel that you can do it. Every one of them is well focused on its level, and you can find, at the end, lovely explanation notes and light and fun comprehension exercises.