THE RELIGION
Tim Willocks
Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Historical Fiction
ISBN-10: 0374248656
ISBN-13: 9780374248659

THE RELIGION by Tim Willocks will give history buffs and literary fiends alike something to cheer for this summer, as its epic storytelling and masterfully plotted scenarios truly take one away from the workaday world on waves of smart dialogue and sweeping action.

In 1565 the Turks seized Malta, a Christian enclave. The son of a Saxon blacksmith, one Martin Tannhauser, becomes an unwitting hero: he not only gets kidnapped by Muslim raiders, who whisk him away to Sicily, but once there he forges away from the family trade by becoming a famous and very successful arms dealer. In the course of this prosperousness, he moves in circles previously unbeknownst to him and is courted and seduced by Contessa Carla La Penautier. This young widow needs to find her long-lost abandoned bastard son, and Tannhauser is recruited to do the detective legwork on that cold case.

In the meantime, the lost boy's father, who happens to be a deadly inquisitor monk, is in Malta because he soon wants Malta to be under the political and religious auspices of the Papacy. He is a nasty character, filled with vitriole --- a step above the nasty papal fiefs in THE DA VINCI CODE --- and works it with a grace becoming only a Tony Soprano-type (to use some contemporary lore).

Tannhauser steps up to the plate and tries to win the trifecta: find the missing child, take down his evil father and win Carla's heart. Of course, since there is a war going on --- and this seemingly is the first of several installments in which Tannhauser will be a great hero --- he must wage Renaissance man battle with fierce opponents and survive. Certainly, THE RELIGION offers him a battlefield that has not been explored already ad nauseum and an adventurous journey that will keep readers glued to every one of the 600-plus pages.

Willocks is a novelist and screenwriter with a serious interest in Shotokan karate (he is a First Dan black belt, which is a very serious thing indeed). He co-founded a theater company that performed Christopher Marlowe's JEW OF MALTA and claims that this production is what led him to the Great Siege, and thus to THE RELIGION. His screenwriting abilities are evident in his clear and concise pacing and the sheer balancing act that he succeeds in utilizing when keeping the many orders of business in line for Tannhauser without losing the audience.

In these days of war and terror, it is something of a palliative to our collective soul to discover that history is rife with traumatic battles between East and West, Muslim and Christian. THE RELIGION is a great example of impeccable timing --- it could serve up some serious lessons in tolerance and the banality of war.

   --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

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