#BookReview ‘The Burning Chambers’ by Kate Mosse

About the book…

Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE.

But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever.

For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou’s help if he is to get out of La Cité alive. Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle-lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further.

Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power.

Published by Pan Macmillan in e-book , paperback and hardback formats, ‘The Burning Chambers’ by Kate Mosse is available wherever good books are sold!
I had been meaning to pick this novel up for a while and I am so very glad that I did.

The opportunity to join a blog tour for the second novel in the series (review incoming!) was just the push I needed to reacquaint myself with this writer and I was not disappointed.

This is the kind of historical fiction that you dream of, volumes of it, chunky and filled with maps and character lists, as well as a brief introduction to the time for anyone unfamiliar with the time period.

Spanning continents and sweeping from France through to South Africa over the course of 300 years, it opens with a graveside meeting which results in accusations of theft, violence and possible death. Immediately the scene is set for centuries of family feuds over what, you are not sure, other than it is a stolen journal but the stage is set and the story begins…

Rewinding from the late nineteenth to the mid sixteenth century, we are plunged into the Wars of Religions, which  are that the Catholic King of France is acquiescing to the torture and imprisonment of Protestants under the threat that they wish to supplant him and his God given place on the throne. This is done in his name by the Queen Regent, and scenes of torture , both physical and mental, follow that leave you very aware that these soldiers and priests will keep going till they exhort a confession, one way or the other.

There is a very definite line drawn between those who reside in, and those who reside outside La Cite, what we would consider Paris. The daughter of a bookshop owner who has been on his travels and returned somewhat changed, yet unwilling to talk about what has happened to him, Minou is the heroine through which we view the political and personal lives of the Cite dwellers. She believes firmly in the business set up by her parents and the provision of pamphlets and books which will allow people to form their own thoughts and opinions, a fairly radical notion for the times.

She is the de facto head of the family, and when she becomes involved in the mystery of a misplaced holy artefact, her life becomes at risk form more than one quarter. Someone is on her trail, and knows who she is, and giving refuge to a Hugenot convert is to risk imprisonment, and shame on her family name.

Between Piet, the Hugenot’s narrative chapters we have those from Minou’s perspectives and a third, initally unnamed narrator, a woman who has been evilly used by men and is planning a revenge unlike any other. her bitterness and willingness to kill those responsible for her degredation from a young age screams from the page in a howl of righteous anger and you cannot help but feel empathy towards this woman, as you do to Piet, who is merely expressing his right to free speech and belief, and as you do to Minou who wishes for a simple life in her bookshop.

The story may be historical in aspect, but there are universal themes throughout which still stand true today-there are still wars begun, and continuing, over the right to practice their worship of a God who would, in all aspects, weep bitterly over the deaths carried out in his names.

The way that friend betrays friend and family betrays family to become more important, more lauded within a city which is in its infancy, and how long it goes on for, could become a tale of bitterness and regret. However, this is a novel written with such passion and beauty that you cannot feel that this is anything but an epic journey , just begun. Truly superb.

About the author…

Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 42 languages. Her fiction includes the novels ‘Labyrinth’ (2005), ‘Sepulchre’ (2007), ‘The Winter Ghost’ (2009), and ‘Citadel’ (2012), as well as an acclaimed collection of short stories, ‘The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales’(2013). Kate’s new novel, ‘The Taxidermist’s Daughter’ is out now.
Kate is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (previously the Orange Prize) and in June 2013, was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature. She lives in Sussex.

Links-http://www.katemosse.co.uk/

Twitter @RandomTTours @PanMacmillan @katemosse