I really enjoyed this book. Kate Mosse (with an E, not the cocaine snorting supermodel...) is a fantastic writer. It's fast paced, sympathetic to it's subject and really engaging to read. I'd describe the story as a cross between Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Mitch Albolm's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Labyrinth a really really good book but unlike The Da Vinci Code, it's not as in your face with all that irrelevant descriptive rebellious twaddle that got a bit irritating by the end of Brown's story (as much as I enjoyed the plot). I'm probably not going to even begin doing it justice in the review I write here.
.
The story of Labyrinth flits between two main characters; Alice Tanner in the 21st century, and Alais Du Mas in the 13th century. Whilst on an archaeological dig in the Sabarthes Mountains, Alice discovers a hidden chamber with a strange labyrinth symbol carved into the wall with two skeleton remains in a shallow grave. And so begins the puzzle unraveling in the 21st century side of the story... murder, deception, cult rituals, kidnappings and discovering the truth of the past.
.
Meanwhile in the 13th Century... 17 year old Alais resides in the Cite of Carcassona with her husband Guilhem, her sister Oriane and her father Bertrand Pelletier, Intendent to Viscount Trencaval. This part of the story is set just before the crusade war as the North invade the South in an attempt to eradicate all heretics as instructed by the catholic church. Once evening Alais' father reveals to her that he is one of three guardians chosen to protect the Holy Grail and due to the imminent war on their land he needs her help to keep the secret safe and so begins Alais's story to achieve this.
.
When I started to read Labyrinth the first thing I did was read the Authors note at the beginning which had the effect of making me think "oh god, it's going to be a history novel whereby you have to be dedicated historian to understand what on earth's going on". Not the case at all. All you need to know is that the people of the South were pretty much free to follow whatever religion they wanted. But the Catholic church wasn't happy about this and instructed a Crusade to invade and wipe out anyone who denounced God, known as heretics. The North helped the Crusade under cover of wanting the same thing, but really they only wanted the lands of the South for themselves. But all this is pretty easy to follow in the story... it's not like you have to have a PHD in French history to understand the significance of events.
.
I won't reveal too much else about the actual storyline as I won't be able to do it the justice it richly deserves. All you need to know is that Mosse's writing is excellent. The way she dovetails the two stories together is expertly done and she has this knack of being able to pick out exactly the right word needed for her descriptions so that you totally understand where she's coming from and what the characters are thinking at feeling.
.
But I think it's her interpretation of what the Holy Grail is that makes the story for me. It's such a clever idea and although I'm not religious at all, it's definitely a theory I could believe if I was that way inclined. One of the key concepts she reveals in the book is what better way to keep a secret than to have it concealed beneath another secret... a cunning idea for sure. The idea she portrays the Grail as being is very interesting in the fact that it can apply to all religions... it's not tied to one thing... which makes more sense to me that other Grail offerings.
.
I shall leave you with the extract of a poem Alais quotes within the book in the language of the Midi. It doesn't sum up the whole idea of the book and the story it's trying to tell. I just liked it :)
."Res contr' Amor non es guirens, lai on sos poders s'atura"
There is no protection against love, once it chooses to exert its power
