The Sign, Raymond Khoury’s third bestseller (following The Last Templar and The Sanctuary), has 113,000 copies in print.  Before becoming a writer, Khoury was an architect, an investment banker and also dabbled in real estate. After two of his screenplays were shortlisted for Fulbright Fellowships, he decided to try his hand at a third – The Last Templar.  In addition to becoming a major bestseller (21 weeks on Publisher Weekly’s charts in its hardcover and mass editions), that novel last year was adapted for a four-hour NBC miniseries starring  Oscar winner Mira Sorvino.

Order your signed copy of The Sign, by Raymond Khoury at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 1)

Hello again~

You’ll want to check out our recent notice –

Nearly 25 years ago we first met Alex Delaware, and he returns in his 23rd mystery in Jonathan Kellerman’s True Detectives.  Walter Mosley launches what promises to be his best series since Easy Rawlins first appeared in 1990 with The Long Fall.

Readers of historical adventure writers James Rollins, Raymond Khoury, Steve Berry and Clive Cussler take notice of Alexander Cipher, an exciting debut by newcomer Will Adams.

Ace Atkins brings the 1921 Fatty Arbuckle case alive in Devil’s Garden, and Philip Kerr’s private detective Berney Gunther travels to 1950s Argentina in A Quiet Flame.  He delivers compelling portraits of real characters such as Eva and Juan Peron, Adolf Eichmann, and Otto Skorzeny in a novel that ends up asking some highly provocative questions about the true extent of Argentina’s Nazi collaboration and anti-Semitism under the Perons.

Today’s selection is rounded out by two recent finds:  Michael Palmer’s 2007 bestseller, The Fifth Vial  and Manda Scott‘s first title in her bestselling Boudica series Dreaming The Eagle.  Quantities are limited on both, so don’t delay.

Plenty to consider here!

John and Virginia

Raymond Khoury’s new thriller is now available to acquire from our website.

“In Antarctica, a scientific expedition drops anchor for a live news feed. As the CNN journalist begins her report, a massive, shimmering sphere of light suddenly appears in the sky, enveloping the ship in luminous white light before disappearing as mysteriously as it arrived – the entire event witnessed by an incredulous world audience. Meanwhile in a dusty bar in Egypt, a dozen men are lazily discussing the state of the world when the brilliant, glowing symbol on the television stops them cold. One man breaks out in a sweat, crosses himself repeatedly, and rushes out of the bar muttering the same phrase over and over again: It can’t be.”

Raymond Khoury moved to Rye, New York, from his native Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war there in 1975. After graduating from Rye Country Day School, he returned to Lebanon to study architecture at the American University of Beirut. During his years there, in between repeated flare-ups of fighting, he illustrated several children’s books for Oxford University Press’s Middle East office. Khoury completed his degree just as the civil war erupted again, and was evacuated out from the city in February, 1984, by the Marine Corp’s 22nd Amphibious Unit on board a Chinook helicopter.

(examiner.com, Dec. 2008, Robin Rayne)

With rights already sold in heated auctions in twenty-one countries, The Last Templar, Raymond Khoury‘s epic debut novel, is ready to thrill readers on these shores. “It has served us well, this myth of Christ.”–Pope Leo X, 16th Century. In a hail of fire and flashing sword, as the burning city of Jerusalem falls from the hands of the West in 1291, The Last Templar opens with a young Templar knight, his mentor, and a handful of others escaping to the sea carrying a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order’s dying Grand Master. The ship vanishes without a trace. In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights emerge from Central Park and ride up the Fifth Avenue steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the blacktie opening of a Treasures of the Vatican exhibit. Storming through the crowds, the horsemen brutally attack anyone standing between them and their prize. Attending the gala, archaeologist Tess Chaykin watches in silent terror as the leader of the horsemen hones in on one piece in particular, a strange geared device. He utters a few cryptic Latin words as he takes hold of it with reverence before leading the horsemen out and disappearing into the night. In the aftermath, an FBI investigation is led by anti-terrorist specialist Sean Reilly. Soon, he and Tess are drawn into the dark, hidden history of the crusading Knights, plunging them into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Templars.

Order signed first edition books by Raymond Khoury from www.vjbooks.com

Raymond Khoury was born in 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon.  He now lives in London and is a screenwriter and novelist, best known as the author of the 2006 New York Times Bestseller ‘The Last Templar’.   He wrote ‘The Last Templar’ from his own screenplay that predates ‘The Da Vinci Code’ by several years.  Khoury followed with the release of  ‘The Sanctuary’ in August 2007. His third novel, ‘The Sign’ is due in March 2009, and can be pre-ordered at www.vjbooks.com .

Raymond Khoury moved to Rye, New York, from his native Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war there in 1975. After graduating from Rye Country Day School, he returned to Lebanon to study architecture at the American University of Beirut. During his years there, in between repeated flare-ups of fighting, he illustrated several children’s books for Oxford University Press’s Middle East office. Khoury completed his degree just as the civil war erupted again, and was evacuated out from the city in February, 1984, by the Marine Corp’s 22nd Amphibious Unit on board a Chinook helicopter.

Khoury moved to London and joined a small architecture practice. The architecture scene in the mid-80s throughout much of Europe was going through a severe downturn, and the work was far from fulfilling. He decided to explore other career options and applied to the European Institute of (more…)