Book Review: The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse

Published on: 21 Oct, 2018
Updated on: 21 Oct, 2018

By Laura Neuhaus

Kate Mosse, who was at Guildford’s Book Festival in October, takes her reader on a vividly historical journey that unearths the 16th Century religious struggle in France to show how “old secrets cast long shadows”.

Minou is a spirited and strong young woman who has stepped in for her deceased mother and ill father, running the family bookshop and looking after her siblings. Soon, however, strange things begin to happen.

A protestant Huguenot, Piet Reydon crosses her path, fleeing from a catholic set-up after Minou has just received a mysterious letter: “she knows that you live”. Soon Minou is caught up in the religious strife, though the greatest danger, unknown to Minou, is the cold and haunting voice seeking her death.

A compelling read.

Mosse weaves many threads of the plot together, jumping between characters and places, to create a compelling read that challenges you to fit the mounting mysteries together and find the cause of Minou’s problems.

Burning Chambers looks to be a promising start to the planned series of novels that will trace the paths of Minou’s ancestors further into the present. The new series comes after Kate Mosse’s multi-million selling Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel.

Kate Moss

Mosse divides her time between her home in Chichester and writing in Carcassonne, where she is surrounded by the imposing presence of the past through La Cité’s medieval buildings.

Her chosen subject is very relevant to us today, not just because of its surviving traces. Religious strife and conflict continue, which is something Mosse seems to speak to when her characters philosophize that “much of this current conflict is fueled by a desire for power” and that instead, it is better to have “a mind open to the faiths and opinions of others”.

The lack of education for women during the 16th Century also means that Mosse’s novel fills the gap left by a lack of female voices by reimagining the period from Minou’s perspective.

Nor does Mosse over-simplify the good versus evil binary. Betrayal, deception and violence are committed on both sides to show that, no matter in whose God’s name such acts are carried out, nothing can excuse their disastrous consequences.

Carcassonne: the setting for the novel and the city in which Mosse has a home.

Mosse’s novel becomes an interesting mix between the events of the past and questions of the present. Can love conquer cultural and religious divides? Can man put humanity before religion?

All remains to be seen. Burning Chambers leaves you in anticipation of its sequel.