Labyrinth – Kate Mosse (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

146. Labyrinth – Kate Mosse, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, March 2006 (c2005), ISBN: 0399153446, 508p.

Featuring: Alice Tanner and Alaïs

Synopsis (from dust jacket):

In this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmospheres of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny.

July 2005.  In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag.  Too late Alice realizes she has set in motion a terrifying sequence of events and that her destiny is inextricably tied up with the fate of those called heretics eight hundred years before.

July 1209.  On the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alaïs is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth, a secret that has been guarded for thousands of years.

Comments:

Not my usual read, but interesting nonetheless.  I'm not sure exactly what to say about it.  I read it, I was interested in following the various twists and see where it all lead, I just felt a tad let down by the end.  I'm not a writer (or reviewer) by any means, and I'm having trouble expressing this...  I guess it just felt a little pushed to me.  Maybe it was the whole fate thing.  Everything had to work out just so in order for the story to have the 'proper' ending.

Jo