Review: THE MISTLETOE BRIDE, Kate Mosse

• this edition published 2013 Orion Books
• ISBN 978-1-4091-4804-3
• 290 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

The perfect winter ghost short story collection from the No.1 bestselling author of LABYRINTH and THE WINTER GHOSTS.

"I hear someone coming. It has happened before. I pause and listen but no longer hear anything. I sigh. As always, hope is snatched away before it can take root. And so then, as always, I am carried back to that first December so very long ago..."

Rooted in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany and the Languedoc, here are tales of ghosts and spirits seeking revenge, grief-stricken women and haunted men coming to terms with their destiny.

My Take

Mystery rather crime fiction.

This volume contains 14 short stories and a short play.
Each short story is accompanied by an account of what inspired the writing of it, whether it is connected to local folklore, and when it was published.
This was Kate Mosse's first collection of short stories, and only 6 of them had been published before.

The author says "What they have in common is a protagonist is a state of crisis, someone whose emotional state makes them more susceptible to experiences or happenings outside everyday life. They are men and women who, for a moment at least, have slipped between the cracks of the physical world we can see and understand and into a shadow world that may or may not exist."

I love short stories. The bonus was to find out what was behind the writing of it.
Most were historical, maybe a little Gothic, in flavour, and a bit Poe-ish. 

The ones I liked best were The Misteltoe Bride, The Drowned Village, and the House on the Hill.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.4, THE TAXIDERMIST'S DAUGHTER
4.4, THE BURNING CHAMBERS  

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: THE TAXIDERMIST'S DAUGHTER, Kate Mosse

• this edition published by Orion Books UK 2014
• ISBN 978-1-4091-5376-4
• source: my local library
• 409 pages
• author website: http://www.katemosse.co.uk

 Synopsis (author website)


The clock strikes twelve. Beneath the wind and the remorseless tolling of the bell, no one can hear the scream . . .1912. A Sussex churchyard.

Villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will not survive the coming year are thought to walk. And in the shadows, a woman lies dead.

As the flood waters rise, Connie Gifford is marooned in a decaying house with her increasingly tormented father. He drinks to escape the past, but an accident has robbed her of her most significant childhood memories. Until the disturbance at the church awakens fragments of those vanished years . . . 

My Take

This is not a novel for the faint hearted: gothic and gruesome.

Something that she barely remembers, a fall down some stairs over a decade ago, has robbed Connie Gifford of her memory, and left her in "delicate" health, with occasional petit mal seizures. About the same time as her accident her father lost his taxidermy business and Cassie, an older girl whom she vaguely remembers, disappeared from her life. She thinks Cassie may have died.

The book opens at midnight on 24th April 1912, at the Church of St Peter & St Mary in the Fishbourne Marshes of Sussex. This is the Eve of St. Mark when the ghosts of those destined to die in the coming year will be seen walking into the church at the turning of the hour. Connie has followed her father to the church and sees him meeting some men whom he knows. They are looking for someone Is she here? and as the bell begins to toll, the door of the church is flung wide, and a cloud of small birds flies out. No-one sees the murder take place. A week later a body floats up in the marshes.

Connie has learnt the art of taxidermy from her father and at times produces stuffed birds for sale. So there are descriptions of her at work, which helps the reader understand later events in the novel.

Connie's father has kept a secret since the night of Connie's accident, a secret that involves the four men who have met him in the church yard. An event that has occurred in the previous week holds out the promise that their secret may remain buried forever, but only her father suspects that what they have been told is not true. And is the secret still safe with him?

This novel has a very black feel about it - there is a lot of darkness, a lot of rain. Gradually we are able to piece the puzzle together.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Kate Mosse is the author of six novels & short story collections, including the No 1 multi-million selling Languedoc Trilogy - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel - and No 1 bestselling Gothic fiction including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter, which she is currently adapting for the stage. Her books have been translated into 37 languages and published in more than 40 countries. She has also written three works of non-fiction, four plays and is curating a collection of short stories inspired by Wuthering Heights to celebrate the 200 anniversary of Emily Bronte's birth in 2018. Her documentary on the writer & classicist Helen Waddell will be broadcast by the BBC in 2018.
A champion of women's creativity, Kate is the Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction - the largest annual celebration of women's writing in the world - and sits on the Executive Committee of Women of the World. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to literature and women and was named Woman of the Year for her service to the arts in the Everywoman Awards. Deputy Chair of the National Theatre in London, Kate hosts the pre & post performance interview series at Chichester Festival Theatre in Sussex, Platform Events for the National Theatre in London, as well interviewing writers, directors, campaigners and actors at literary and theatre festivals in the UK and beyond.
Kate divides her time between Chichester in West Sussex and Carcassonne in the southwest of France. She is now working on the next novel in 'The Burning Chambers' series, The City of Tears - set in Paris, La Rochelle and Amsterdam - for publication in May 2020.