Sepulchre

After "Labyrinth" disappointing; in the gothic style as "the mysteries of Udolpho" or "the castle of Otranto" - and basicly, just as bad. From its 544 pages one might skip at least 300 to get to the core of the story. For somebody liking simple knitted mystery/love/crime stories probably at least

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partially entertaining.

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A historical paranormal thriller with romantic undertones is probably the best way to describe this novel. It’s expertly told in past and present-day sections that interlink and progress steadily side by side. As Meredith Martin investigates her ancestral past the story of Leonie comes to light

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with threats both old and new, and sometimes unexpected. There’s not much to critique here — the wonderfully plotted book has enough suspense to hold the reader’s interest. The only possible negative and it’s not really a negative at all is that the paranormal influence is subtle at times, maybe too subtle for some who may be more interested in the supernatural aspects of the tale. The conclusion wasn’t as riveting as it may have been owing to that but it all rounds off satisfactorily where many books fail. This may interest those who like classical ghost stories, or historical thrillers, or even historical romances, although it’s not romantic fiction.

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Apparently I should have read Labyrinth first, but oh well. I first stumbled upon the name 'Kate Mosse' when I was trying to wash the taste of the DaVinci Code from my mouth by looking for a better writer on the same subject (the archeological/historical/secret society/alternative history/occult

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hodgepodge that has spawned an entire subgenre). Sepulchre weaves two timelines together using as bonding agents tarot cards, occult happenings, the French countryside, a deadly feud and - strangely - syphilis. Mosse writes with a good flow, her characters perhaps a bit simple but always engaging. There's a touch of Bronté and Austen there, with a talent for bringing the past to life, but a rather clumsy approach to her plot with the main characters just stumbling into the right place at the right time. It doesn't matter though, because the tale as a whole is still quite tasty with tragedy and suspense chasing eachother around like cats and dogs. It helps that I love books that utilize the tarot. Anyway, this is a good example of the genre and you could do worse than picking this up if you come across it.

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Yet another parallel lives novel. Yet another mystical mystery. Yet another strong, tough heroine. Yet another needlessly lengthy novel. I found little that was fresh and new in this book.

I almost didn't finish this but I plodded on. Its not that the basic story is bad but it's overly long and I really came to dislike Leonie, a main character. Mosse tended to be verbose with some of her descriptions. Some of the characters were not fleshed out well.

“The Devil in a French Duet”

Sepulchre shuffles a Tarot deck and deals us out a rather haunting and mysterious gothic French duet that alternates chapters from 1891 to the present, with two striking heroines that prove both to be mademoiselle’s in distress for the entire 572 pages of this

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incredible historical thriller.

Victorian Paris gives us Leonie, and her dashing brother Anatole, journeying to France’s beautiful countryside at the invitation of an aunt they barely know, or at least this is how it is at first perceived. Anatole running from a smeared reputation and a rival for his lover, and Leonie curious about her family heritage as well as the mystery surrounding the country house of Domaine de la Cade that her mother has always feared , both find themselves shrouded in thick macabre scenarios equaled to that penned by Edgar Allen Poe. Settling in, Leonie explores the sequestered library uncovering a tiny book written by her uncle on the Occult and a bizarre deck of Tarot Cards. Exquisite illustrations and unusual passages have Leonie puzzled as to why her uncle was dabbling in such forbidden arts. With both siblings sneaking behind each other’s backs and immersing themselves in diabolical mischief and murder, the reader quickly gets sucked into pure gothic suspense that you just can’t put down.

In the present, Meredith Martin is writing a biography of Achille-Claude DeBussy the famous opera composer. She is also on holiday in France researching his link to the 19th century home of Domaine de la Cade. Before arriving, as a last minute whim, Meredith visits a Tarot reader. Although she has always believed this art of seeing what the future holds stuff and nonsense, she leaves the fortune-teller quite startled and with a sense of unease and foreboding. As she traverses the Languedoc area of France making notes for her book, she is being followed by a man obsessed and gets involved in a family plot of hidden agendas and a murder steeped in mystery that involves Anatole and Leonie in the past.

Characters are not always whom they appear to be, and the author masterfully injects huge dollops of terror and mystifying conundrums that surprise and shock the reader as each chapter unfolds. Malevolent beings roam the wilderness, tarot cards evoke the spirits, a crazed rejected lover is hell-bent on revenge, and a plot that thickens into a quagmire of seductive suspense, will have you up all night listening for footsteps outside your bedroom door.

Two girls of overlapping fates with a century between them are in over their heads digging for answers and finding their lives at stake as two twisted masterminds, present and past, are on the loose tracking them for their own quests of power and retribution. This novel swirls us up into a tornado of edge-of-your-seat chills and thrills while the shadows within Domaine de la Cade wreak havoc causing it’s inhabitants to fitfully sleep and wake screaming of clawing beasts and impending danger.

I found Sepulchre to be one of the most well written historical mysteries I’ve read in years. The author’s first blockbuster Labyrinth was fabulous as well, but this far exceeded my expectations not believing she could outdo herself after that first fine debut. The book is long but worth every phrase, passage, and page, as it is so finely crafted and well researched with a blend of history and real-life characters that come alive on the paper you hold.

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There was to much unexplained French in this book. If you can't read or understand french it doesn't make for enjoyable reading.
I liked the two main characters and found it easy to get involved with them.
I didn't like the family secrets and how they kept dismissing the bad guy as if he wasn't going

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to bother them or find them again.
I didn't like the deaths in it.
There are good parts. I skimmed over the descriptions of the areas a lot of times as they went on to long.

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After having read Labyrinth I had to read this, and was not disappointed!

A mediocre plot with far too many irrelevant threads. Debussy keeps on popping up for no reason that I could see. The plot itself is based on a fantastical coincidence and the characters are thin sketches without apparent motivation. The wrtiing is peppered with 'clever' references and phrases in

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French or Occidental that don't really fit (and in one case are just plain wrong). That said, it's not a bad read for a hot summer's day and I kept turning the pages.

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This is a truly mesmerizing book. I don't know if I should call this as "magical realism", but I really did fall in love with the story. Both heroines Leonie and Meredith were inspiring (especially Leonie) and have been portrayed well in both narratives within the novel. It also introduced me

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further to the land of Languedoc (Carcasonne?) in France, which I found to be a whole lot different from the France that most of us are familiar with. That area may just have to be its own country just so they can revive the long-forgotten religion (Catharism) that had been depleted by the Catholic Church.

I like this book better than Kate Mosse's first (Labyrinth). I also enjoyed Labyrinth but I thought Sepulchre was a lot more in-depth and catchy in terms of the suspense and the mysticism. However, by reading both of these books I truly feel and understand the author's love and dedication to Languedoc & Carcasonne. It's probably a prior reason why I would like to visit France one day.

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My experience with this novel was very similar to that of Mosse's "Labyrinth". Again, the cover was for some reason very appealing, as was the description of the book. But once again, the potential was there & yet I didn't feel like it carried through. Had the story been about 1/2 or 1/3 the length

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that it ended up being, I think it would've been just as effective, and maybe more so. Ultimately, there was too much filler and not enough culminated action. I kept waiting for the big climax (again, I thought the potential was there & the set-up was fairly good), but I was just disappointed overall. Will I look for Mosse's next novel? Probably, because I'm a sucker, but if you were disappointed in "Labyrinth", you'll likely feel something similar with this one.

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Started out slow. Picked up briefly in the middle. Then inexplicably slowed down again, only to rush the resolution so much that I actually flipped back to see whether I'd missed it. This book had a lot of promise - the premise is awesome, the characters interesting and engaging, but nothing ever

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really comes of it. Not a bad read, but disappointing given what it felt like it could have been with a little more effort toward plot.

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Have you ever heard/read of the word "juddered"? Not jetted, not jarred, not shuddered... "juddered." Used in the context of this novel (and it was used twice), it was something like "juddered to a halt." Now... I've never seen this word before, but it certainly made me *judder* to a halt. Though

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Dictionary.com suggests "judder" means "to vibrate violently," which means I'm not quite sure it means what Mosse wanted it to mean, but if anyone has more info on this, please pass it along. I am totally willing to have my vocabulary expanded.

But why do I mention this as the first point in my review of Sepulchre? Well, not because Mosse's writing is jarring or because it makes me slam on the brakes and quickly end something. It's more because both Mosse novels have let me go along for a while, but then ultimately caused me to tilt my head and ask if perhaps we couldn't have had one more pass with an editor, because a few things could use some review and tightening up.

Don't get me wrong, clearly I enjoy Mosse's novels. I sought this one out as soon as I found it in paperback and I know that I'll read whatever else she writes. The best part of a Moss novel is the beginning... as you meet the characters, ease into the story, and start absorbing the time period. Kate Mosse writes quite well as a historical fiction novelist. Note: I actually do mean a historical fiction novelist here, not a historical romance novelist, as so many female historical writers seem to be these days if there's any hint of romance in the book. And I also want to point out that she is, indeed, a novelist, in the sense that her plot line takes precedence. Mosse clearly does her research when she invests herself in a time period and she's in love with the south of France, which you can also tell from her descriptions of the country. Mosse crafts intricate plot lines, embellishes with beautiful historic detail, and conjures likable characters (though her modern characters are not always quite as fleshed out as the period characters, and they often feel too full of the echoes of the past to have enough personality of their own). But ultimately, it's this ability that makes me expect a little more from her when we keep moving through the novel. These books are suffused with suspense and tinged with the supernatural, but about two thirds through Sepulchre (and, for that matter, Labyrinth), I set the book down with a sigh because I was getting a little tired of the build-up to an ending which I'd already figured out. I won't give anything away, but trust me, you'll figure it out long before the book gets there.

If you have read Labyrinth, then Sepulchre's format will seem familiar with the dual plotline format. (Indeed, even a few characters will be familiar to you.) In the late nineteenth century, a brother and sister have traveled from Paris to visit their aunt in a small town outside of Carcassonne. This aunt has inherited her husband's estate upon his death, a house that has a great many dark and mysterious legends surrounding it. Here we have secret lovers, murder, feigned deaths, desperate attempts to flee evil villains, duels, and dabblings in the occult. In the twenty-first century, we have a young woman who is trying to finish a book on Debussy and, while she's at it, piece together some family history of her own. Here we have the beginnings of a romance, murder, a not-quite-evil-but-mostly-just-led-astray villain, and some more tame dabblings in the occult. Unsurprisingly, these times are tied together and the modern era's quest to discover what happened in the past will also attempt to right any wrongs leftover.

Ultimately, I would say that as long as you're not expecting too much of this novel and you enjoy period novels, then there's a high chance that you'll be pleased with this. Mosse clearly has the researcher's need for detail and that always makes me feel like we're starting on the right foot, but something still needs to come together with the gothic novel part, whether that's inserting a real twist or what. I still finished feeling like I wanted something more, and not just another Mosse novel, though I'll be looking for that, too.

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I was disappointed in this book after being so entertained by Mosse's first book, Labyrinth. Less historical, more gothic, Sepulchre was slow moving until near the end of the book, and the characters were weakly drawn. I disagree with the LOC subject heading of time travel. Overall rather dull,

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despite the periodic violence.

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Well-told story in both the late 19th century and modern day, about a place and murder and tarot cards.

I listened to this on audiobook, read by the same woman (Donada Peters) who so excellently narrated Mosse's previous novel, Labyrinth. This is a similar story: modern woman's life is intertwined with that of long-dead French woman. In this case, the women's lives are only about a hundred years

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apart. I wish I'd been able to read this closer to Labyrinth. It's not a sequel, but some characters do reappear. The best part about listening to this on audiobook was that the song "Sepulchre," which plays a significant role in the story, is played in the background at various points in the recording. It was hauntingly beautiful.

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Hmmm I still don't understand why everyone loves Kate Mosse's work - her characters really do leave me cold. There were some nods back to Labyrinth as some of the characters appeared but I really couldn't care that much about anyone in this one.

Loved it, definete recommended reading. This is a book you don't want to put down.

"I read it a couple of years ago on holiday, and almost lost the will to live. Can't recommend it, I'm afraid. As I recall, the musicologist heroine is writing about Debussy, but this is just one of dozens of plotlines that just fizzle out into thin air..."

Not classic literature, but a fun, interesting novel of the "parallel lives" genre (if such a genre exists). What I liked most about this book is that I was alredy very familiar with Rennes-les-Bains, and Carcassonne in southern France where much of the action takes place. There are some lingering

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mysteries from this region including the Saurniere mysteries located in the nearby town of Rennes-le-Chateau.

I like the way the author weaves some of these real events from the past into her fiction. She puts fictional, but possible, explanations for some of these past events throughout her novel.

I recomend this book if you are interested in the fin de siecle France, Debussy, mysticism, spirits affecting present lives, etc. I liked it better than Labyrinth, maybe because of the aforementioned personal connections.

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While this is the second in the series, Its not necessary to read them in order, as this is its own story.This is a great, engaging novel. I was more 'into' the past storyline than the 'present' one, but that is more of my interest than anything to do with the writing. In some ways, the author

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could have done more with the occult aspects of her book, but in other ways having it always in the background is an effective storytelling trick. I think having something demonstrating the importance of these aspects would have increased the interest of the 2007 plot for sure.Overall, its gripping and engaging. Definitely worth adding to your "to be read" list.

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This book is long. It's good if you stick with it. Not very much happens in either timeline in the first half - and you'll feel like perhaps you'd enjoy it more if you knew about French history, Tarot, or music theory. Things start moving more in the second half, and it's a very personal drama. If

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you like flowing tomes, I'd say give this one a shot. It is beautifully written. Just not sure I quite understand all of it.

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I enjoyed this one more than Labyrinth (just). In my opinion, which seems to differ from some of the salaried critics, this is a well written and engaging story.

Much like Labyrinth, I loved this novel. Full of history and imagery..