The Heretic

By Joseph Nassise

Cade Williams was just an ordinary cop until the night a fallen angel nearly killed him. Now he commands the Echo Team, a special ops squad of modern Templar knights, and the things they hunt are far darker and much more deadly than the criminals that he used to face.

When Templar bases are attacked by unknown forces, Cade and his team are called in to investigate. They discover a cabal of necromancers allied with the Adversary, the same fallen angel that murdered Cade's wife, Gabrielle, and left Cade himself on the verge of death several years before.

In order to keep the power of an ancient relic from falling into the Adversary's hands, the Templars must take the battle directly to the enemy and in the process they give Cade a shot at the one thing he's been longing for since the night his wife was killed.

Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, but Cade's got a score of his own to settle and he's not going to let the rules get in his way...

Praise for THE HERETIC - book one of the internationally bestselling dark fantasy series by the author of EYES TO SEE and BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES.

'First-rate, stylish work from Mr. Nassise, with a steady escalation of the story's speed that makes it almost literally breath-taking." -- Clive Barker

"A breakneck-paced thriller that delivers on the thrills and tosses in more than a few more chills." -- Kelley Armstrong

"THE HERETIC is a genre-bending thrill ride that heralds the debut of a urban fantasy series to watch...and enjoy." -- Cemetery Dance Magazine

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Nassise
• Release date: Mar 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452400853

Joseph Nassise

Joseph Nassise is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles series, the Jeremiah Hunt trilogy, and the Great Undead War series. He also writes epic fantasy under the pseudonym Matthew Caine. He’s a multiple Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee and his work has been translated into seven languages.

Reviews for The Heretic

[daniesq_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Simply awful.

[treyjones · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

You'd think that if the Knights Templar actually had made it to the modern age and had enough money to buy lots of property that they would have made some advancements in weaponry to deal with zombies, specters and demons as well. Not in this book. Only one character in this book had any depth, and his was fairly shallow, and mostly around his dead wife, who keeps showing up to help him. She is also the only female character in this book. Also irritating is that author was obviously unfamiliar with the geography of places his characters went.

[donalbane26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought it was a good story. Plenty of action to keep the story moving along.

[dokfintong · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through librarything.comjuliedawson's review below nails it. Templar conspiracy books are a dime a dozen, as are "Evil Hellspawn Attempt to Wipe Out Their Righteous Adversaries" plots. Nassise is a good writer. The book is good, not great, and I suspect that the sequels will get tiresome rather quickly.

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A real testosterone fest, but interesting nonetheless. Moves along at a breakneck pace with serious military overtones. The publisher's blurb will give background clues and set up for this installment in the series which seems well worth the read.Won in a LibraryThing giveaway.

[kindleifier · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Poor. Excessive use of simile - “the sound of his footsteps followed him like an affectionate puppy”. (Not an exact quote). Very pretty, but totally pointless. It just made me stop dead, thinking ‘what else would the sound of your footsteps do??’.I wasn’t drawn to any of the characters, though the concept had potential. When I realised that it felt like a chore to read, I abandoned it.

[karenduff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book I have read by this writer and I look forward to reading more. My only complaint is that the ending seemed a little rushed, there was so much time building up to Cane's confrontation with the bad guy and then it was all over in a couple of pages

[ralphd00d-325171 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was a bit surprised by this one. The story synopsis had sounded to me like the author was trying to combine too many elements in a story: ancient angelic weapons/relics, fallen angels, paranormal abilities, Templars, and necromancy ... I am sure I am missing a few others things, too. But it was free (at least at the time) through Amazon, so I downloaded it, and I finally got around to reading it.

I wished I hadn't waited so long. Nassise does a great job of keeping my attention as the story progresses. There are a couple areas where I questioned the reasoning behind some actions, or parts of the story, but am hoping that these will be revealed somewhere in the books that follow this one in this series.

[harperhaven · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Definitely not my normal genre. It was an ok but with lots of action and little character development.

[juliedawson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Heretic covers familiar territory. Secret Order of Templars working from the shadows to protect humanity. Vatican cover-ups. A rogue agent who is the only person in the order capable of stopping the evil that has been awakened. Evil cult hell bent upon, well, raising Hell. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would have been a boring “been there, done that. Got the t-shirt” exercise.Nassise, however, brings much needed energy and excitement to the otherwise mundane (mundane for urban fantasy plots, anyway) storyline. His writing style is concise, hard-hitting, and designed to keep the plot moving forward at an almost breakneck pace. Reading The Heretic is very much like sitting through a big budget summer action film. There is just enough intrigue to keep the reader engaged, but not so much that the story becomes a convoluted mess (as often is the unfortunate case with this sort of story!). The Heretic is a perfect balance of action and mystery wrapped in a handsome bow.There are two minor points that irritated me (though neither point is a “deal breaker” regarding whether or not you will enjoy the story overall).The first is that some character behavior just felt inconsistent with the way the characters were described. Nassise puts a lot of thought into describing scenes and setting up his characters, which made some of the inconsistent behavior actually stand out more. Right in the opening, we’re introduced to a character that is described as having exceptional situational awareness and training. And not more than a page later, the guy absently steps in front of a bus. I completely understand that people do in fact do this (and I also realize that this was supposed to be a little foreshadowing). But the juxtaposition between how the character was described versus how he acted was jarring. There is a lot of this throughout the story, and I’m not sure if it is deliberate to force a response from the reader or inadvertent. In either case, it is sometimes distracting.The second is that there are no women in this book that don’t end up dead (and even then, I only noticed two of any note). I’m not a crazed feminazi that demands central characters must be female or that all books are required to have strong female role models. I don’t read speculative fiction at my age looking for role models. I read to be entertained. But the absence of any women, even in minor roles, was strange. Particularly for an urban fantasy. I actually went back through my Kindle version and did a search for female pronouns, just to see if I may have skimmed over something. I’m completely fine with all of the central characters being male, particularly considering the plot. But the absence of even minor, secondary characters of the female gender was glaring.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book sucked me in right from the beginning and held me there until the very end. The only thing I didn't like about this book was putting it down.While The Heretic is about the Knights of Templar, a religious order, it is not preachy and does not force any particular belief on readers. The Heretic is nonstop action, a paranormal thriller filled with the intricacies of relationships, struggles with faith, love, vengeance and duty. The writing is vivid, the characters made me care and the plot kept me on edge. I can't wait to read the second book in this trilogy!

[macygma · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cade Williams didn’t do orders; he also didn’t do Rules - especially when they got in the way of his job as a Knight Commander of the Templars. Cade didn’t start out that way but having your wife killed in front of you tends to change your outlook.Sean Duncan headed up the Protectors group of the Templars and is in charge of care of the Preceptor for North America. They are in Connecticut to investigate a Templar group left in ruins, all dead who were there at the time of the event. How did the bad guys get in? How did they create such chaos. Answers are needed and fast!Which is when the Preceptor brings in Cade and Echo Team. Not a popular choice as Cade (aka The Heretic) is known to break any rule in his way to get to the source. He immediately drafts Duncan to replace a team member lost and there the real conflict begins. Good/Evil vs. Good vs Really evil. The winner? We shall see. The Loser? Us if things turn wrong.An excellent beginning to The Templar Chronicles set of tales. Can’t wait for number two titled The Scream of Angels!

[squeex_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good versus evil, the timeless battle, is part of what makes a superb urban fantasy. Good are the Knights Templar that everyone has assumed was annihilated in the 14th century when the Order had been accused of witchcraft. The Order of the Knights Templar had just gone underground, then "reborn as a secret military arm of the Vatican with the mission to defend mankind from supernatural threats and enemies."The main character is William Cade, The Heretic. He is the leader of Echo Team, members of the Templars, but with permission to work independently from the rest of the Knights. When things get so hinky that the Order can't get it done, Echo Team is called in. Cade has powers of his own, using them and the Knights to fight evil in all forms and what appears to be revenge on what he calls The Adversary, the entity that killed his wife.Ther is an enemy, The Other, with power beyond what's been witnessed before and it is attacking the Templars' bases in search of an artifact and it's up to Cade and his team to find this powerful being and annihilate it before it can succeed its mission.This story moves supremely fast, holding the reader in its grasp, until the very amazing end. I cannot wait to read the next in the series, A SCREAM OF ANGELS and A TEAR IN THE SKY. Five amazing more Cade and Echo Team please sparkly diamonds...