When a clinical psychologist enters his waiting room in 1999 to summon his new client, he notices all the chairs are empty. Suddenly, his eyes fall upon a woman crouched in the corner with her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a protective posture. Dr. Hirsch has just met Anne, a woman who would eventually relay an unforgettable story of incredible abuse and amazing survival as she gathered the courage to escape the darkness of cult abuse.

Within the walls of a strict and isolated religious community that advocated traditional values and social responsibility, another reality lurked. As Dr. Hirsch delves deep into Anne's past, she begins to expose a history of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by leaders of a religious cult who kept children in cages, ruled mysterious deaths accidental, and tragically misused religion to justify the acts. As Dr. Hirsch questions why such incomprehensible acts occurred in the first place, a powerful and trusting relationship ensues between Anne and her therapist, changing both of them forever.

As Anne summons the strength to testify against cult leaders, a captivating story of resilience is revealed, providing wonderful insight into how psychotherapy helped lead one woman out of the darkness and into the light.

A bishop's vows are tested by the epic eleventh-century battle between East and West, in this compelling novel of the Crusades. It is the year 1097. The violent warrior class of Western Europe is marching against the Islamic Seljuk Empire to recapture Jerusalem at the plea of Pope Urban II, igniting a searing inferno of war, betrayal, and intrigue as two worlds collide--East against West, Christians against Muslims. Caught in this vicious conflict, Bishop Tristan de Saint-Germain strives to balance religious vows, loyalty to the pope, and his life-long love for Mala the Romani, the beautiful girl he met as a child just before entering the monastery of the Black Monks in France. Tested by separations, the death of their firstborn child, the threat of eternal damnation, and now annihilation, Tristan and Mala struggle against the raging tides of cultural and religious intolerance to remain together in an age of inflexible Catholic doctrine and holy war. Finding support in Queen Irene and Emperor Alexius of Byzantium, they are challenged by Archbishop Adhémar of Le Puy, rigid moralist and leader of the First Holy Crusade; Tafur, the perverse "Beggar King"; and Lord Desmond DuLac, hated specter of the Saint-Germain family past. Time alone shall direct the outcome as humanity awakens the wrathful hand of God's scarlet fury.

A majestic novel of assassination, espionage, and forbidden love in the time of the Crusades. Ordained as a Black Monk, Tristan de Saint-Germain is inducted into medieval Europe's most secretive organization, the Benedictine Underground, where he's tasked with carrying out secret orders, embassies, and assassinations on behalf of the Gregorian papacy. But Tristan holds a secret. He has become hopelessly drawn to a beautiful young Romani girl, Mala, whom he met by chance as a boy. Indeed, despite his vows, his rigid monastic indoctrination, and his labors on behalf of the Benedictine Underground, Tristan cannot and will not refute his growing and unbridled passion for Mala. Their clandestine relationship, however, will weave a twisted trail that can only lead to heartbreak, betrayal, and tragedy as Tristan's stature continues to rise within the Church while it fights schism from within and the sudden threat of Islam arising from Spain, Africa, and the Middle East. This riveting story of politics, religion, family bonds, loyalty, honor, and a man whose heart is torn between doctrine and true love brings to life the cataclysmic, murderous rampage of hatred and intolerance that bared its ugly fangs at the end of the eleventh century and whose venom lingers within us to this very day.

A mob of peasants ransacks its way to Byzantium while a young bishop struggles to stop them, in this sweeping historical novel of the Crusades. Wild-eyed evangelist Kuku Peter has inflamed the pauper hordes of Europe, raising a violent peasant army of thirty thousand men, women, children, and elderly intent on recapturing Jerusalem from Islam. Untrained, armed with farm implements, and lacking provisions, this ragtag mob scorches a path across Europe and into Byzantium, leaving behind a horrid trail of intolerance and destruction . . . Young Bishop Tristan de Saint-Germain is sent by the pope to stop Kuku Peter's march of madness, but trails it all the way to Constantinople. Arriving there, he unexpectedly discovers beautiful Mala the Romani awaiting him, still hoping to pull him from the grasp of Pope Urban and the Vatican. As their heartbreaking, obsessive past unearths itself while promising resurrection, the future of Christendom hangs in the balance as Kuku Peter's renegade army tramps into the Sultanate of Rüm. Clinging to each other in defiant desperation, driven by hope and an illicit love forbidden by the Church, Tristan and Mala struggle to survive the raging currents of war, race, and faith as humanity approaches the greatest cultural war of all time: the Holy Crusades.

Religious war erupts between church and king and shapes a young man's fate in eleventh-century France . . . Born of nobility in France in the year 1066, seven-year-old Tristan de Saint-Germain has his fate thrown to the winds upon the execution of his father for treason against William the Conqueror of Normandy. Abandoned by his mother, who remarries and departs for England, Tristan and his four-year-old brother, Guillaume, find themselves thrown into the monastic world of the Benedictine Black Monks of Cluny, France. Under the tutelage of Grand Prior Odo de Lagery, who one day will ascend to the very pinnacle of power within the Catholic Church in Rome, Tristan develops into an academic and linguistic prodigy by the age of twelve and becomes known as the Promise of the Black Monks. Tristan's unusual talents will become useful to the Benedictines, as well as to Rome--and the boy soon finds himself pulled into the visceral power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Heinrich IV as they mercilessly wage spiritual, political, and military war upon each other to claim supremacy over the continent of Europe . . .

An epic novel of the Crusades, the siege of Antioch, and a man and woman swept up in the bloody quest to reach Jerusalem. In 1097, Pope Urban's Army of God confronts the great city of Antioch, the final obstacle before reclaiming Jerusalem from the hammer of Islam. But Antioch is defended by the wily Turcoman, Emir Yaghi Siyan, and is coveted by the atabeg of Mosul, Kerbogha. After overcoming a tortuous trail of impossibility, separation, and heartbreak, Bishop Tristan de Saint-Germain and Mala the Romani finally stand at the precipice of a new life together. However, Antioch snares them both, forcing Tristan to decide between honoring his "father" in this life, Pope Urban II, or abandoning Catholicism forever in favor of exile with Mala in the Middle East. Appearing unexpectedly in the midst of this crucible, honorable Lord Abdul Azim and murderous Mahmoud Malik create further complexities, bringing together in one final episode all the primary characters of the Dark Ages Saga of Tristan de Saint-Germain, including Peter the Hermit, treacherous Desmond DuLac, Tafur the Beggar King, and Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy. Will the forces of God prevail or those of Allah?

When a clinical psychologist enters his waiting room in 1999 to summon his new client, he notices all the chairs are empty. Suddenly, his eyes fall upon a woman crouched in the corner with her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a protective posture. Dr. Hirsch has just met Anne, a woman who would eventually relay an unforgettable story of incredible abuse and amazing survival as she gathered the courage to escape the darkness of cult abuse.

Within the walls of a strict and isolated religious community that advocated traditional values and social responsibility, another reality lurked. As Dr. Hirsch delves deep into Anne's past, she begins to expose a history of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by leaders of a religious cult who kept children in cages, ruled mysterious deaths accidental, and tragically misused religion to justify the acts. As Dr. Hirsch questions why such incomprehensible acts occurred in the first place, a powerful and trusting relationship ensues between Anne and her therapist, changing both of them forever.

As Anne summons the strength to testify against cult leaders, a captivating story of resilience is revealed, providing wonderful insight into how psychotherapy helped lead one woman out of the darkness and into the light.