Crusaders

Crusaders is a novel by the British author Richard T. Kelly published in 2008. Plot summary Crusaders is set mainly in Newcastle upon Tyne in the year 1996, although there are scenes set in earlier years, and an epilogue set just before the 1997 General Election. The principal character of the novel is the Reverend John Gore, a 31-year old Church of England vicar who returns to his native north-east in order to start a new church in the run-down (fictional) area of Hoxheath. Gore is a supporter of the Labour Party, although both his father and his sister, Susannah, a PR consultant, vote Conservative. Gore renews an acquaintanceship with Dr Martin Pallister, a former lecturer and left-wing firebrand who, encouraged by Susannah, has become an ambitious New Labour MP. Another old acquaintance is Simon Barlow, an evangelical vicar whose parish is in a more affluent part of Newcastle but who offers to help Gore. After Gore makes an impression in the local media, Pallister offers him the chance to become involved in an urban regeneration scheme, but Gore is suspicious of the scheme and of Pallister's motives. Pallister begins to work with Barlow, who is evidently trying to discredit Gore.