#BlogTour ‘City Of Tears’ by Kate Mosse

About the book…

Following on from the Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse’s The City of Tears is the second thrilling historical epic in The Burning Chambers series, for fans of Ken Follett and Dan Brown.

August 1572: Minou Joubert and her family are in Paris for a Royal Wedding, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and the Huguenot King of Navarre intended to bring peace to France after a decade of religious wars. So too is their oldest enemy, Vidal, still in pursuit of a relic that will change the course of history. But within days of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the streets and Minou’s beloved family will be scattered to the four winds . . .

A gripping, breathtaking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, the action sweeps from Paris and Chartres to the city of tears itself, Amsterdam.

My ever grateful thanks to the wonderful Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the opportunity to read and review ‘The City Of tears’ by Kate Mosse which is out now in paperback, from Pan Macmillan.

This is exactly the kind of sweeping, historical epic in which you can submerge yourself, cut off the outside world, and emerge, more fully yourself for giving in to the experience. Pure literary and historical escapism at its best, I would thoroughly recommend this gorgeous novel to anyone with even a passing interest in historical fiction.

No prior knowledge of the 1600’s is required, it is neither dry nor dusty as it brings to life characters we have come to know well through the pages of Volume 1, ‘The Burning Chambers’

I cannot say how it would be as a stand alone novel, because I bought book 1 being that kind of reader who likes to read things in order, however, I imagine that Ms Mosse’s writing is so engrossing that you absolutely could .

A wedding, especially a Royal one, is usually a time for celebration, especially when this one could end the wars fought between the Hugenots and the Catholic Crown family. However, when Minou, Piet and her family travel to the capital to participate in this momentous event, they are not un burdened…for with them come the troubles wrought by family enemy and embittered Vidal, still hunting for the holy relic he believes stolen by Piet.

Vengeance driven and evilly twisted, the way he keeps going by virtue of his religious conviction that he is doing God’s work is the total antithesis of strong willed, opinion forming woman and head of the family, Minou. Piet, her husband, is of a different persuasion and not only encourages free thinking, he embraces it himself as a converted Hugenot and believes there is no one way to worship a God whose name has been used to torture, kill, maim and brow beat into praying to.

The presence of this relic will be definitive proof, for Vidal, that Jesus existed and therefore ‘proves’ the existence of God, and Catholic supremacy, once and for all. The evil done in the name of good makes you despair as soldiers break down doors, demand obedience and fealty to their version of a deity, condemning the way in which others pray and it is so desperately sad to read of these  times where the people are considered unconstructed by modern standards and yet, you can see this as emblematic of our modern beliefs-or denials-of the existence of something bigger than ourselves. Kate Mosse examines the personal and the societal by making us care about, and invest in, the future of her characters and then widening her gaze to the way they are living. It is a wonderful feat of literary art.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, and a welcome return to the fabulous characters brought so wonderfully to life by Kate Mosse, I am eager to know if, and when , there will be more in The Burning Chambers series. This is a large book, more than 500 pages, however,don’t let that put you off,. The themes are human and universal, no matter the time frame, and honestly, the pages just fly by. You come to the end sincerely wishing you had slowed down a little.

Thankfully, there is an extensive back catalogue of Kate’s work to indulge in, I will be off to the library with a list of titles tomorrow!

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 @katemosse @RandomTTours @panmacmillan