Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

From Barnes & Noble

When archaeology volunteer Alice Tanner chanced upon the cave opening, she had no idea that she would be utterly changing -- and endangering -- her life. Inside the cave were the remains of two people, a stone ring, cryptic etchings on the wall, and a small, timeworn leather bag. At her own peril, Tanner discovers that the story of the cave goes back to the 13th century and then far, far beyond. A brisk, well-researched historical thriller.

From the Publisher

July 2005. 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.

Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. 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. Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

The Washington Post - Ross King

… the novel distinguishes itself by juggling two compelling story lines, unscrambling (and making digestible) chunks of medieval history and offering a pleasing wealth of information about the Languedoc, a region whose landscape and history Mosse loves deeply and knows intimately. Her contagious enthusiasm for the subject and dexterous handling of her material make for an open-throttle narrative drive across 500 pages of white-knuckle twists and turns.

Library Journal

"Three secrets. Two women. One Grail." That's how the publisher sums up this first book from the cofounder of Britain's noted Orange Prize, who was honored as a European Woman of Achievement in 2000. While volunteering at a dig in the Pyrenees, Alice discovers two skeletons, several artifacts, and the drawing of a labyrinth. They lead her back to a woman named -Alais, whose father entrusted her with the secret of the Grail at the time of the-Albigensian heresy. Foreign rights sold to nine countries [rights sold in an additional 22 countries]. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Mosse's page-turner takes readers on another quest for the Holy Grail, this time with two closely linked female protagonists born 800 years apart. In 2005, Alice Tanner stumbles into a hidden cave while on an archeological dig in southwest France. Her discovery-two skeletons and a labyrinth pattern engraved on the wall and on a ring-triggers visions of the past and propels her into a dangerous race against those who want the mystery of the cave for themselves. Alais, in the year 1209, is a plucky 17-year-old living in the French city of Carcassone, an outpost of the tolerant Cathar Christian sect that has been declared heretical by the Catholic Church. As Carcassonne comes under siege by the Crusaders, Alais's father, Bertrand Pelletier, entrusts her with a book that is part of a sacred trilogy connected to the Holy Grail. Guardians of the trilogy are operating against evil forces-including Alais's sister, Oriane, a traitorous, sexed-up villainess who wants the books for her own purposes. Sitting securely in the historical religious quest genre, Mosse's fluently written third novel (after Crucifix Lane) may tantalize (if not satisfy) the legions of Da Vinci Code devotees with its promise of revelation about Christianity's truths. 8-city author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Two women, separated by eight centuries, share a special connection both to each other and to three mystical books of power in this adventure novel by the cofounder of Britain's Orange Prize for Fiction. In the 13th century, French Crusaders were determined to exterminate all religious heretics in the rebellious south, including the Cathars living in Carcassonne. Bertrand Pelletier, soldier and keeper of the "Book of Words," confesses his secrets to daughter Alais, thereby putting her in grave danger. During an archaeological excavation in present-day southwestern France, Alice Tanner uncovers a cave containing two skeletons and a stone ring engraved with a labyrinth. Alice must stay one step ahead of ruthless enemies while conducting her own investigation into the mysteries of the labyrinth. Mosse's obvious love of the region's Occitan language infuses her prose with great passion. However, the trick of alternating story lines becomes confusing, as does the irritating plethora of mystical objects. A flawed work, but, given the popularity of Da Vinci Code-type fiction, strongly recommended for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/05.]-Laurel M. Bliss, Princeton Univ. Lib., NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Dan Brown probably need not move over, but he may have to share the wealth with this well-researched tale, set in both contemporary and 13th-century France (Carcassonne), and featuring two intrepid heroines. Written by the British literary insider who co-founded the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, this is a quickly paced adventure that wears its considerable learning lightly-and of higher literary quality than The Da Vinci Code, to which it will inevitably be compared. Its modern protagonist is 30-ish Alice Tanner, who joins an archaeological dig in the Pyrenees hoping to rev up her uneventful life, and makes an astonishing discovery while exploring a mountainside cave. Two skeletons and a ring bearing a labyrinth design lead, by an agreeably circuitous route, to a mystery related to the story of the Holy Grail, dating back to the culture of ancient Egypt-and attracting various shady characters with vested interests. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative, teenaged Alais, daughter of one of the Grail's appointed guardians, is entrusted with an invaluable book, one of three that together reveal the Grail's long-hidden secrets. Further complicating Alais's burden is the fact that her family are Cathars, a gentle religious sect who believe that Satan created Earth and God the heavens, and have thus incurred the land-grabbing enmity of northern neighbors who persecute them with genocidal efficiency, in what has since become known as the Albigensian Crusade. Mosse moves briskly between the two narratives, painting an impressively dense picture of life in the farming region then called Languedoc, and devising nifty matching situations and characters (e.g., two obstreperously venal femmesfatale). It all works smashingly until late in the story, when an ill-advised (and quite overlong) summary of the history of the Grail legend brings the drama to a stuttering halt. Fun for most of the way-and very likely to be one of next summer's popular vacation reads. First printing of 100,000

Product Details

• ISBN: 0425213978
  
• ISBN-13: 9780425213971
• Format: Paperback, 528pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: February 2007
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 18,695

• Reading Group Guide

Reading Group Guide

2. Also in the prologue, there are glimpses of the two time periods. Do you think it is important that, after the prologue, Kate starts the novel proper with 10 chapters set in the medieval past?

3. How did you feel when the action moved to contemporary France in chapter 11?

4. How quickly did you discover that some of the modern characters mirror or echo characters from the past? Which ones did you spot first? What were the clues?

5. Do you see Guilhem as an unhappy character, who never fully atones for his betrayal of Alaïs, or does he finally put things right?

6. Have you ever felt, like Alice, such an affinity with a place that you seem to know who must have previously lived there and the emotions they enjoyed or endured?

7. Some of Kate's medieval characters are real, in the sense that people with those names lived and breathed in the circumstances Kate narrates 800 years ago. Did you notice anything different about the 'real' characters? (For example, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Agnès de Montpellier, Simon de Montfort and others.) You can visit www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk to learn more about these historical figures.

8. There are very few scenes of violence in Kate's novel, but those few are extremely severe. Do you think they were 'too much', 'not enough' or 'just right'?

9. Kate wanted to tell an adventure story in which active women shaped their own destinies. One journalist called her 'Wilma Smith'! Is this aspect of the adventure important to your enjoyment of the novel?

10. Although the Labyrinth story and the trilogy of special books have a spiritual element, they exist alongside Catharism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, not as part of any of these religions. How do you think Kate handles questions of faith?