As for the narrator, I enjoyed listening to her presentation. The last stand of the Cathars was at a famous castle that became an object of study for the Nazi's (a la Indiana Jones) because of the Cathar connection. Further web searches showed me that Mosse had been pretty faithful to history. I realize now that some place names, like the Col de Bonne Homme (Mt Blanc area) is a reference to the native Cathars. I learned a great deal about the culture of southern France and northern Italy. It is cultural history told through a pretty good story. (See also books by Crossan and Pagels.) Don't misunderstand - this isn't a faith or spirtual book. I think that Mosse was making the connection between ancient Egypt and some of the basic beliefs of Christainity. The story at the very end does get a little fanciful with some connections to Egypt mythology. The Christain religion had started to go down divergent paths and something had to be done to get it back on the straight and narrow.

This book was one of my favorites because it had good character development, suspense, fluid story, and it taught some very important history about the early Catholic church. If that is of little interest to you, then move on.

This is historical fiction that explores a people in southern France, the Cathars, who dared challenge the early Catholic Church. Why ask a rock music fan if he likes opera and vice versa. One thing that I've learned about reviews is that not everyone likes the same things. In the present, another woman sees the find as a means to the political power she craves while a man who has great power will kill to destroy all traces of the discovery and everyone who stands in his way. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery: two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag.Įight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders.

Labyrinth kate mosse series