• Grade: 7 to 8

“Kill them all. God will know his own.”
This was the advice the crusading Catholic knights were given before they stormed the walls of the heretic Cathar city of Beziers in 1209. They took it to heart and 10,000 people died. Two childhood friends are part of this tragedy. One, Peter, is an assistant to the mysterious priest who leads the crusade; the other, John, with the help of a heretic woman, barely escapes the doomed city with his life. As the brutal war against the Cathars expands, Peter and John are caught up on opposite sides of the search for a secret that might change the world.
Book II coming in Fall 2010 and Book III coming in Fall 2011!

“An astonishingly nuanced and masterfully told story”

? Quill & Quire

“I found the details of the Cathar heresy instructive and the ideas presented thought-provoking and very interesting... I look forward to reading the next book with great interest.” ? Review of Canadian Materials

PRAISE FOR JOHN WILSON“John Wilson has crafted a vivid, visual, moving story filled with action, adventure and intrigue!” “? “Eric Walters on Where Soldiers Lie“An exciting story, sumptuously written, and richly evocative of time and place. An amazing achievement.” “?--Deborah Ellis on Where Soldiers Lie

John Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

Crusade (Heretic’s Secret)