The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

A 19th-century French priest discovered something in his mountain village at the foot of the Pyrenees which enabled him to amass and spend a vast fortune. The story which this book tells begins with what seems to be buried treasure and then turns into an historical detective story - a modern Grail quest leading back through cryptically coded parchments, secret societies, the Knights Templar, the Cathar heretics of the 12th and 13th centuries, and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than 1300 years ago.