Review: THE BURNING CHAMBERS, Kate Mosse

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 4829 KB
• Print Length: 608 pages
• Publisher: Mantle (May 8, 2018)
• Publication Date: May 8, 2018
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0774FM62G 

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Bringing 16th century Languedoc vividly to life, Kate Mosse's The Burning Chambers is a gripping story of love and betrayal, mysteries and secrets; of war and adventure, conspiracies and divided loyalties....

Carcassonne, 1562: 19-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 Cite 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....

My Take

Once again I am on the outskirts of crime fiction. This is more a historical novel, but there is plenty of mystery.
I have seen several times that it is also the beginning of a series of 4 books "with the next three due out in 2020, 2022 and 2024".

Set in France in 1562 at the start of the Wars of Religion, it begins with a Prologue set in Franschhoek South Africa in 1862, 300 years after the main action of the book. Thus setting up a mystery for the scope of the remainder of the series.

Within the major canvas of the wars which involved Catholics vs Huguenots is this story of the struggles within one Toulouse family, surely one mirrored all over France as Church and State struggled for power.

Central to the story is the true identity of one of the characters.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.4


 I have also read
4.4, THE TAXIDERMIST'S DAUGHTER

About the author
Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 38 languages. Her fiction includes the novels Labyrinth (2005), Sepulchre (2007), The Winter Ghosts (2009), Citadel (2012), The Taxidermist's Daughter (2014), and The Burning Chambers (2018), as well as an acclaimed collection of short stories, The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales (2013). Kate is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of the Women's Prize for Fiction and in June 2013, was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature. She lives in Sussex. 

Review: CAT O'NINE TALES, Jeffrey Archer - audio book

• audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Anton Lesser
• Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 01-30-07 
• firsts published 2006
• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 

Synopsis (Audible.com)

Cat O' Nine Tales is the sixth collection of irresistible short stories from this master storyteller. These 12 yarns are so satisfying because they are ingeniously plotted, include richly drawn characters, and have deliciously unexpected conclusions. They feature the mad, the bad, and the dangerous to know, as well as some more poignant and telling characters.

Many of these stories came to Archer while he was incarcerated for two years in five different prisons, and so they have a prison theme. Others were inspired after he was released. All in all, they confirm his position as one of the best storytellers alive.

My take

Another impressive set of short stories, a couple really almost novellas.
Beautifully and cleverly narrated.
I really am hooked on Archer's short stories.

The list of stories
    The Man who Robbed his own Post Office
    Maestro
    Don’t Drink the Water
    It Can’t Be October Already
    The Red King
    The Wisdom of Solomon
    Know What I Mean?
    Charity Begins at Home
    The Alibi
    A Greek Tragedy
    The Commissioner
    In The Eye of the Beholder

They range from a tale of ‘The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office’, to the story of a company chairman who tried to poison his wife while on a trip to St Petersburg – both with unexpected consequences. In another, ‘Maestro’, an Italian restaurateur ends up in jail, unable to explain to the tax man how he can own a yacht, a Ferrari and a home in Florence, while only declaring a profit of £70,000 a year.

‘The Red King’ is a tale about a con man who discovers that an English Lord requires one more chess piece to complete a set that would be worth a fortune. In another tale of deception, ‘The Commissioner’, a Bombay con artist ends up in the morgue, after he uses the police chief as bait in his latest scam. ‘The Alibi’ reveals how a convict manages to remove an old enemy while he’s locked up in jail, and then set up two prison officers as his alibi. In total contrast is the accountant, who, in ‘Charity Begins at Home’, realises he has achieved nothing in his life, and sets out to make a fortune before he retires.

And then there is Archer’s favourite, which he came across after leaving prison, ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’, where a handsome premier division footballer falls in love with a 20-stone woman … who just happens to be the ninth richest woman in Italy. - this extract from Archer's website.

My rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
A TWIST IN THE TALE
4.5, ONLY TIME WILL TELL- #1 Clifton series
4.7, TELL TALE 

Review: THE SHROUDED PATH, Sarah Ward

• format: kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 481 KB
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (September 4, 2018)
• Publication Date: September 4, 2018
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07D3F8BZT
• #4 in the Connie Childs series

Synopsis (Amazon)

The past won't stay buried forever.

November, 1957: Six teenage girls walk in the churning Derbyshire mists, the first chills of winter in the air. Their voices carrying across the fields, they follow the old train tracks into the dark tunnel of the Cutting. Only five appear on the other side.

October, 2017: a dying mother, feverishly fixated on a friend from her childhood, makes a plea: 'Find Valerie.' Mina's elderly mother had never discussed her childhood with her daughter before. So who was Valerie? Where does her obsession spring from?

DC Connie Childs, off balance after her last big case, is partnered up with new arrival to Bampton, Peter Dahl. Following up on what seems like a simple natural death, DC Childs' old instincts kick in, pointing her right back to one cold evening in 1957. As Connie starts to broaden her enquiries, the investigation begins to spiral increasingly close to home.

My Take

Susan definitely saw 6 girls enter the tunnel and then only 5 emerged at the other end. She walked through the tunnel in trepidation but did not find the missing girl. For her it simply confirmed the sinister and evil nature of the place. After that she avoided going near the tunnel and and years passed, then decades.

Six decades later Mina's mother Hilary is hospitalised with an aggressive cancer. She has a raging temperature which doesn't seem to respond to treatment. Hilary becomes frightened when she receives a visit from someone from her past. She is unable to explain much to her daughter Mina about who this person is. At one stage she tells Mina that she killed Valerie, that Valerie is dead, and then asks Mina to find Valerie. When Hilary dies Mina becomes determined to find Valerie, but then the possibility arises that Hilary has been murdered.

This story is a real page turner. The story is full of mysteries and fascinating scenarios.

My rating: 4.8

Read another review at Clothes in Books

I've also read
4.8, IN BITTER CHILL
5.0, A DEADLY THAW  

Review: THE PARIS SECRET, Karen Swan

• this edition published 2016 by Pan Macmillan
• ISBN 978-1-4472-8029-3
• 406 pages
• author website

 Synopsis (publisher)


Not every door should be opened . . .

With stunning locations and page-turning tension, The Paris Secret is an intense and gripping tale from bestselling author Karen Swan, perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore.

Somewhere along the cobbled streets of Paris, an apartment lies thick with dust and secrets: full of priceless artworks hidden away for decades.

High-flying fine art agent Flora from London, more comfortable with the tension of a million-pound auction than a cosy candlelit dinner for two, is called in to assess these suddenly discovered treasures. As an expert in her field, she must trace the history of each painting and discover who has concealed them for so long.

Thrown in amongst the glamorous Vermeil family as they move between Paris and Antibes, Flora begins to discover that things aren’t all that they seem, while back at home her own family is recoiling from a seismic shock. The terse and brooding Xavier Vermeil seems intent on forcing Flora out of his family’s affairs - but just what is he hiding?

My Take

Here is another of those novels that sits on the outer boundary of crime fiction. Certainly crimes have been committed, long ago, perhaps even the biggest crime against humanity of all. But this novel is about whether a family will benefit from the aftermath of those crimes, or is what has happened in the past, in this instance, not what it seems?

A family's lawyers are contacted by some burglars to say that they have found a long untouched apartment. A junior clerk not well versed in the protocols to be followed in this case contacts the family and events escalate from there. He has sent them the key to the wrong apartment.

The family is controlled by a matriarch, her husband long dead. He has left instructions that the apartment is not to be opened by the family until after his wife's death. So, the family employs a fine art agent to explore and document the contents of the apartment which appears to be scores of painting and other art treasures untouched for over 70 years.

The author says the story is based on a newspaper report about a similar situation that has occurred in Paris.

There is a lot of human interest in this story particularly about how the younger members of the family will cope with their family's history about which they have, until this point, known nothing.

Very readable.

My rating 4.4

About the author
Karen Swan began her career in fashion journalism before giving it all up to raise her three children and a puppy, and to pursue her ambition of becoming a writer. She lives in the forest in Sussex, writing her books in a treehouse overlooking the Downs. Her books include Christmas at Tiffany’s, Summer at Tiffany’s, The Perfect Present, Christmas in the Snow, Christmas on Primrose Hill, The Paris Secret and The Rome Affair.

What I read in August 2018

A good month, some solid reads, including some short stories

1. 4.5, THREE LITTLE LIES, Laura Marshall  
2. 4.4, THEN SHE WAS GONE, Lisa Jewell
3. 4.5, MOTIVES FOR MURDER, Martin Edwards (edit) - short stories
4. 4.4, BANNERLESS, Carrie Vaughn 
5. 4.6, DEAD HEAT, Peter Cotton - Australian author
6. 4.6, I FOUND YOU, Lisa Jewell 
7. 4.7, THE GATEKEEPER, Charles Todd
8. 4.6, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, A. J. Finn
9. 4.5, BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY, Tony Medawar (edit)- short stories
10. 4.7, TELL TALE, Jeffrey Archer   - audio book, short stories
11. 4.8, CARELESS LOVE, Peter Robinson 
12. 4.5, NEED TO KNOW, Karen Cleveland  

My Pick of the month is Peter Robinson's latest CARELESS LOVE, Peter Robinson
See what others have chosen.

Review: THE CELTIC STONE, Nick Hawkes

• this edition published by Rhiza Press 2015
• ISBN 978-1-921632-64-8
• 250 pages
• winner of the Caleb Prize 2014 for faith inspired fiction
• author web site

Synopsis (publisher)

Chris Norman’s dreams of being a commercial pilot are shattered when he crashes his light plane in central Australia and is badly wounded. His life hangs in the balance, a balance that is swayed by the intervention of an Aboriginal man. He leaves Chris with a mysterious and incongruous legacy, a Celtic cross made of stone.

Partly blinded and in deep grief at no longer being able to fly, Chris finds his way to the inhospitable islands off the West Coast of Scotland where he seeks to unravel the secrets of the Celtic stone.

A blind Hebridean woman, shunned by many in the local community, becomes his reluctant ally, along with a seven year old boy who is as wild as the storm tossed seas that surround the islands.

Chris must overcome his grief to find answers to his questions. But the threat of murder lingers ....

My Take

This is one of those books that I place on the margins of crime fiction: but there is murder, there is mystery and there is crime.

I bought the book recently at a book launch held at our local library by the author to celebrate his third book.

There's something a little old fashioned about the plot and style of this book - it reminds me of some of the books I read decades ago. Having said that though, I am not denigrating it. I really enjoyed the story. At the book launch Nick Hawkes said he favoured happy endings and this novel certainly works towards that. It is a stand-alone and its characters are engaging and, as the Caleb Prize might warn you, there is an underlying theme about the meaning of life.

The setting ranges from South Australia to the Scottish Hebrides and they are places which the author appears to know and love.

If you are looking for some very readable, feel-good, crime fiction then this might just hit the spot for you.

My rating: 4.3

About the author

Nick was a research scientist for twelve years before training as a pastor and leading a number of vibrant churches. He is currently Pastor of Rivergate Christian Community in South Australia.

Nick is a guest lecturer at two theological colleges, gives daily devotions on Christian radio and is a popular speaker both in Australia and abroad. He is an eloquent and passionate apologist for the Christian gospel

meme: New to me authors - July to September 2018

I have read 20 new-to-me authors in the last 3 months.

1. 4.5, THE SEVEN SISTERS, Lucinda Riley
2. 2.2, AGATHA CHRISTIE'S TRUE CRIME INSPIRATIONS, Mike Holgate
3. 4.4, THE WITNESS, Nora Roberts
4. 4.4, THE GUILTY WIFE, Elle Croft
5. 4.4, TWIST OF FAITH, Ellen J. Green
6. 4.8, THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING, Bill Clinton & James Patterson
7. 4.3, BALLAD FOR A MAD GIRL, Vikki Wakefield
8. 4.4, DEAD LETTERS, Caite Dolan-Leach
9. 4.4, MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE, Matthew Sullivan
10. 4.4, THEN SHE WAS GONE, Lisa Jewell
11. 4.5, THREE LITTLE LIES, Laura Marshall 
12. 4.4, BANNERLESS, Carrie Vaughn
13. 4.6, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, A. J. Finn
14. 4.5, BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY, Tony Medawar (edit)
15. 4.5, NEED TO KNOW, Karen Cleveland 
16. 4.3, THE CELTIC STONE, Nick Hawkes
17. 4.4, THE PARIS SECRET, Karen Swan
18. 4.5, BRING ME BACK, B. A. Paris 
19. 4.5, ODD CHILD OUT, Gilly Macmillan
20. 4.6, DARK WATER, Robert Bryndza 
21. 4.4, THE WIFE BETWEEN US, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen 

Discover the other new authors others have read