Wild-eyed evangelist Kuku Peter inflames the pauper hordes of Europe, raising a violent peasant army of 30,000 men, women, children, and elderly intent on recapturing Jerusalem from Islam. Untrained, armed with farm implements, 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 ends by trailing 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 heart-breaking, obsessive past unearths itself,e promising resurrection, the future of Christendom hangs in the balance as Kuku Peter’s renegade army tramps into the Sultanate of Rüm… and destiny.

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 race, war, and faith as humanity approaches the greatest cultural war of all time… the Holy Crusades.

Robert E. Hirsch received his undergraduate degree from Cameron University and began teaching history and French, then earned his Master’s Degree at the University of Southern Mississippi and Doctoral Degree from Nova Southeastern University of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. Having experienced his own adversities concerning racial stigmas and Catholic doctrine, Hirsch writes with distinct accuracy of the walled façade individuals construct to insulate themselves against others and the terrors of life no less formidable than those constructed by powerful and established institutions. Promise of the Black Monks (in e-book, print, and audio), Hammer of God, A Horde of Fools, God’s Scarlet Fury (2017) and the final, yet to be announced, are all being published by Argus Publishing. Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency  Also found on other online sites and in local and chain bookstores.