THIS IS AN OLD VERSION. SEE ADDITIONAL FORMATS ABOVE.  REPUBLISHED AS: THE LEPER KING (Book One: The Magdalen Cycle) . King of Jerusalem and Defender of the Holy Sepulcher, Baldwin IV walks the sword's edge between the intriguing barons of his own Court and the jihad of Islam. Between the two, however, a sinister presence lurks--a heretical society called the Order of Sion that will stop at nothing to see its own dark designs come to fruition. Baldwin is young, innocent, and a military strategist of no small measure. And, he is a leper. In the midst of mounting political tensions and war, a mysterious woman unexpectedly befriends the lonely sick king--a woman who claims she is Mary Magdalen. The complex and distant world of the Middle East in the times of the Crusades is the setting for this historical novel. It is also billed as "a medieval fantasy." In Jerusalem in 1176, 15-year-old Baldwin IV, a Christian, ascends the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the tumultuous times that follow, the young Baldwin, afflicted with leprosy that claims his life in 1185, mounts a losing struggle against enemies within and without attempting to preserve his beleaguered kingdom. --AZ Daily Star, JC Martin Why write a story about the Leper King with the Magdalen and a heretical conspiracy? My answer is simple: Why not? In the past thirty-some odd years or so the world has become fixated by conspiracy theories bent on uncovering some elusive mystery lying at the heart of Christianity. Namely, that the Church has long suppressed a hidden secret about Jesus and Mary Magdalen and that various groups have guarded this faith-shattering secret until the present day. In writing  The Leper King , I set the story in the timeframe in which the origins of many of these supposed theories are said to have been given birth. By bringing Mary forward in time it gives her the opportunity to answer for herself the charges laid against her by the heretics and a chance to defend her faith against the enemies of the Church. And if such diabolical power and elemental magic was called into play during the turbulent times of the Crusades, could not a curse disguised as a disease devour the life of a young king sworn to defend the holiest place on earth? If the purveyors of wildly heretical nonsense can make such fantastic claims on history, why can't an historical novel demand any less from the realm of fantasy? Is there really any difference between the two?  After all, is it is only a book. Used Book in Good Condition