First published 2013
Richie Cathar carries the weight of his father's legacy. Alaric was a scholar and explorer who named his son after Richard the Lionheart, but he was also a sixties dreamer who abandoned his family for drugs and fantasies. Now thirty-something and adrift, Richie decides to retrace his father's steps to the Holy Land. He travels from Oxford's academic halls to Jordan's ancient Crusader fortresses, researching the Art of the Medieval Latin Kingdom. His true mission goes deeper than scholarship. He wants to find Christianity's most sacred relic and discover who his father really was. In Jordan, Richie meets Noor, a Canadian-Arab journalist whose own story becomes inseparable from his quest. Their love affair unfolds against the backdrop of his search for both medieval treasures and personal truth. Richie must confront the gap between his father's grand ambitions and messy reality.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, contemporary, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, personal-journey
Setting: Oxford, Jordan, Holy Land, Crusader Fortresses
Period: 30s, 1960s
330 pages · Paperback · Bloomsbury