Templars Books in Order

Doherty’s Templar novels are set in the dangerous decades after the First Crusade, when the roads to the Holy Land are filled with pilgrims and bandits, and new religious military orders are forming to protect, and sometimes exploit, that movement.

The series follows the early Knights Templar, showing them not as mythic figures but as men navigating a volatile mix of faith, violence, and politics. Alliances shift quickly, and the line between holy duty and personal ambition is thin.

Faith is the banner, but money and politics ride close behind.

The mysteries are built around real historical friction points: rival lords, contested territories, church influence, and the constant risk of betrayal inside an organization that depends on trust. In The Templar, the story begins near the roots of the order, and by The Templar Magician the plots widen into larger power struggles.

Doherty uses the whodunit structure to keep the pacing tight. A murder is never only a murder, it is a signal, a cover, or a provocation. The investigators have to work in a world where violence is common, but truth is still dangerous.

These books are best read in order, because the stakes and relationships develop across the two novels. But each installment provides its own complete case and a clear sense of the world.

If you want historical mysteries with crusader-era tension and a strong undercurrent of conspiracy, the Templars books deliver that without losing the core pleasures of a puzzle.