http://www.lowellsun.com/lifestyles/ci_11919015

The knight's tale
Westford novelist tracks a local legend
The Lowell Sun
Updated: 03/15/2009 07:02:34 AM EDT


Above, David S. Brody, author of the book Cabal of the Westford Knight. TOP,
clockwise from left, the Knight sword, granite marker (courtesy photos) and what
is known as "The Boat Stone," unearthed and relocated to the Fletcher Library in
Westford.

Many people discovered America before Columbus, but most of them had the good
sense to keep quiet about it.
-- Oscar Wilde, quoted in Cabal of the Westford Knight

By Nancye Tuttle

ntuttle@...

WESTFORD -- David Brody's a believer.

Brody, a novelist, needs no convincing that explorers were here long before
Columbus ever set foot on soil in the Western Hemisphere. He delves into that
and the legend of the Westford Knight in his suspense thriller, Cabal of the
Westford Knight, Templars at the Newport Tower, published in February by Martin
and Lawrence Press.

In his acknowledgments, he notes he was a skeptic but "the lawyer in me became
increasingly convinced that the sheer volume and weight of evidences supporting
the legend of 14th-century European exploration in New England could not be
ignored."

The novel -- praised in an early review as "a wonderful mixture of The Da Vinci
Code and National Treasure" -- takes Cameron Thorne, a Westford-based lawyer,
and Amanda Spencer, a British researcher, on a thrill ride across New England,
uncovering evidence of secret societies, treasure hunters and keepers of the
secrets of the Jesus bloodline.

Thorne first hears of the Westford Knight -- whose visit supposedly occurred in
1399 and is recorded in an effigy carved into a stone outcropping on Depot
Street -- during a visit to the Fletcher Library.

Brody never knew a thing
about the Westford Knight until his daughter told him the legend.
"Allie came home four years ago and asked me who I thought had discovered
America," Brody recalled at his Nabnasset lakefront home.

"I told her it was probably the Vikings or Columbus. She told me I was wrong.
She'd heard a story about the Westford Knight and Prince Henry Sinclair, who was
here in 1399. I never knew about the legend, then I started doing research and
thinking of these explorers going up a hill in Westford. The story would turn
Plymouth Rock into a pebble and turn over history," he says.

That tale, detailed in his prologue, features Prince Henry Sinclair, who comes
from Orkney Island off the coast of Scotland. Sinclair's lieutenant James Gunn
is killed by an angry native's arrow and laid to rest here -- but only after an
armorist carves an effigy of his sword into a hard outcropping of rock.

Brody's plot moves into the present as Thorne's adventures begin, taking him
from Westford, to America's Stonehedge in N.H., beaches in Maine and Rhode
Island and the mysterious Newport Tower in Newport, R.I.

Thorne's fictitious adventures mirror Brody's discoveries, which convinced him
of the pre-Columbian explorers and a possible connection to the Knights Templar
made famous in The Da Vinci Code.

"I thought it would be more interesting if my characters were learning about
this in much the same way I did, by going across New England," said Brody.

The book, a page-turner, is getting good reviews.

"Cutting-edge research and top-notch storytelling pave the way for a
white-knuckle ride," says Scott Wolter, author of The Kensington Rune Stone and
an expert on carbon dating of historic artifacts.

"The plot will keep readers guessing right up to the end ... strongly
recommended for all collections," notes Library Journal.

The research has turned Brody into a history sleuth. His daughters call him
"rock nerd." Family trips now end up at some historic site. And he's a member of
the Westford Knight Committee and a director of the New England Antiquities
Research Association (NEARA).

He has dedicated the book to NEARA's members "who are willing to scratch beneath
the polished surface of reported history in search of the hidden truth."

His new passion has turned him away from the legal thrillers he first wrote --
The Wrong Abraham, Unlawful Deeds and Blood of the Tribe.

"It's a breakaway from the genre I'm known for. But it's too good a story not to
tell," said Brody.

And, being from Westford, he was meant to tell this story.

"You don't stumble on a story like this all the time, and, since I live in
Westford, I was meant to do this book," he said.

Brody appears Sunday, March 22, 2-4 p.m., at Barnes and Noble, Daniel Webster
Highway, Nashua and on Sunday, March 29, 2-4 p.m. at Westford Museum on Boston
Road. He will appear at Barnes and Noble in Lowell later this spring.