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This is a textbook example of what can happen when two researchers start out with a given premise, and then seek out only those facts which tend to support their thesis. Admittedly, "The Hiram Key" was painstakingly researched, but Knight and Lomas seem wholly incapable of evaluating their research in an objective manner. As a result, all of recorded world history is twisted to fit the authors' theories, which are in turn presented as indisputable facts. The result is an unsatisfying house of cards in which every theory, no matter how far-fetched, is supported by layer upon layer of additional wild theories. Unfortunately, if you shoot one fantasy down, the entire structure collapses in an ugly mess. To give an example of this peculiar style of 'creeping logic': --A pharoah was assassinated in Egypt. --Modern-day examination of this pharoah's mummy reveals that he died of three distinct wounds. --These wounds approximate the wounds received by Hiram Abiff in Masonic legend. Without any hesitation or uncertainty, Knight and Lomas announce that these three facts can only mean ONE THING... that they have discovered the long-lost identity of Hiram Abiff! Please stop laughing. This is an actual conclusion drawn by the authors, one made with no more supporting evidence than I have provided here in this review. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there: --The identity of Hiram is now known beyond a reasonable doubt. --The Jewish Captivity in Egypt was roughly contemporary with this 'real' Hiram Abiff's reign as pharoah. Knight and Lomas' conclusion? Without blinking, the authors deduce that the sacred funerary rites of the Egyptian ruling caste clearly MUST have been passed on to Hebrew slaves in a secret ceremony... --And obviously, if the Hebrews were privy to Egyptian funerary ritual, Egyptian religious symbolism MUST have been the basis for Solomon's Temple in Jeruslam... --And since Jesus of Nazareth was a rabbi or teacher, he clearly MUST have been duly "initiated, passed, and raised" in some kind of Egypto-Hebraic pre-Masonic ritual... --And since the Templars were known to have excavated Holy sites in and around Jerusalem, obviously they MUST have discovered Jesus' secret proto-Masonic teachings in manuscript form... --And when the Templars were denounced and the Order destroyed, clearly they MUST have fled continental Europe to the areas surrounding Rosslyn Chapel... ...and so on, ad infinitum. The problem with this sort of inductive reasoning is that you can't always draw specific conclusions from vague generalities. The peculiar logic in this book follows a daisy chain of speculation and inference, building layer upon layer of strangely-drawn conclusions, which in operation often resembles the following: FIRST THEORUM- A) Fred likes sandwiches; B) Sandwiches are made of several ingredients; C) It therefore follows that Fred also likes quiche, because quiche is also made of several ingredients. SECOND THEORUM- A) Margaret is Fred's second cousin; B) People who are related by blood tend to share similar genetic, environmental, and societal characteristics; C) It therefore follows that Margaret likes quiche, because Margaret is related to Fred. THIRD THEORUM- A) Quiche is a featured recipe in several French cookbooks; B) The White House employs several gourmet cooks, often specializing in French cuisine; C) It therefore follows that Margaret must be a White House chef. FOURTH THEORUM- A) American Presidents often hire their own domestic staffs; B) Many people give hiring preference to their own relatives; C) It therefore follows that Fred must be the President of the United States!!! There you have it. Using Knight and Lomas' brand of odd inductive reasoning, I've taken a man with a distant cousin and a preference for finger foods, and deduced that he must be the elected leader of the nation in which I reside. Oddly, were I to publish this theory in book form, I doubt that it would achieve the cult status of "The Hiram Key!" Unfortunately, this clearly-bogus example of a grand, outrageous conclusion drawn from a handful of facts is exactly the sort of thing that Knight and Lomas keep shoveling at the reader throughout "The Hiram Key." By the end of the book, the authors' credibility is so strained that you feel compelled to finish each new chapter out of a morbid sense of curiosity, just to see if the authors can top the inane logic demonstrated in previous passages. Another problem with this strange sort of logic-- and one that inexplicably never seems to dawn on Knight and Lomas-- is that there are equally plausible explanations for each new 'discovery' in this book. In "The Hiram Key," whenever two coinciding events or occurences are brought to the authors' attention, they immediately attempt to connect the two with a highly improbable pet theory... and then congratulate themselves for their brilliant insight. Knight and Lomas literally trumpet their own brilliance as researchers several times in every chapter. At no time do Knight or Lomas seem to challenge, or even question, the series of tenuous coincidences that they have cobbled together and hammered into an incongruous whole. It's a shame that, with so much genuine historical research about Masonic history being published today, this piece of flim-flam has garnered so much attention.