Given the rare international critical and popular acclaim that
Kate Mosse’s LABYRINTH received, the only way to follow such
a work would be to write a better one. With SEPULCHRE, Mosse has
accomplished exactly that --- a substantial novel that reads much
faster and lighter than its heft might suggest, mixing intriguing
characters, dangerous situations, exotic places and fascinating
times.

The general plot of SEPULCHRE is just similar enough to that of
LABYRINTH to be comfortably familiar. In both books, two sets of
events, people and places of the past and present slowly converge,
for better and worse. SEPULCHRE, however, provides a stark contrast
between its two timelines, even as both are infused with a fine and
subtle hint of irony. Rennesles-Bains is the setting for events in
both timelines. A picturesque town in the French mountains, it is
the location of the Domaine de la Cade estate, which provides the
focal point of what has happened and what will occur.

In 1891, 17-year-old Léonie Vernier, living in Paris, is
invited to the Domain de la Cade by her aunt, a widow and sole
occupant of the estate. Léonie is accompanied by her brother
Anatole, a swell who finds it expeditious to leave the Parisian
streets. Léonie, for reasons she is unable to fully
articulate, is uneasy at the estate, though she is somewhat
assuaged by her late uncle’s library, which, she discovers,
contains a number of interesting works on the occult. She is most
attracted, however, to a book dealing with the Tarot and to an
account of an event taking place at a mysterious building referred
to as the Sepulchre.

Even as Léonie searches for, and ultimately discovers, the
enigmatic and dangerous building on the neglected grounds of the
estate, danger lurks from within and without. Mysterious sounds are
heard at night on the estate grounds, ones that portend a possible
threat to those who live there. Meanwhile, Anatole is unaware that
he is the subject of a pursuit by a maniacal enemy who seeks
revenge against him as a romantic rival and who is slowly but
surely ascertaining Anatole’s whereabouts.

The narrative of SEPULCHRE also reveals a parallel tale, occurring
in October 2007, over a century after the events described above.
Meredith Martin is an American graduate student who is in the
process of writing a history of Claude-Achille Debussy, the noted
French composer and, incidentally, a contemporary of Léonie
and Anatole Vernier. Martin is in France for a two-fold purpose: to
further research her book in Paris and trace her own uncertain
lineage that centers on Rennes-les-Bains and the Domaine de la
Cade, newly restored as a resort hotel. While in Paris, Martin
finds herself drawn to a Tarot reader whose flier features a card
whose image mirrors her own. Startled by the revelations of the
Tarot --- and of Martin’s resemblance to one of the figures
in the card deck --- the reader makes a gift of the deck to Martin,
even as Martin flees the reading room.

But the revelations to Martin are only beginning. When she reaches
Domaine de la Cade, she finds that she is haunted by the vision of
a young woman whose looks are hauntingly familiar. At the same time
Martin inadvertently becomes embroiled in a domestic drama
involving the ownership of a hotel, a secret whose solution may
well be contained on the hotel grounds, and a greed-inspired
murder. As October comes to an end and November 1st --- The Feast
of All Saints --- approaches, Martin slowly discovers that her fate
is tied to that of Léonie Vernier and secrets of the past that
have significance for the present.

SEPULCHRE succeeds on several levels. Mosse infuses its historical
settings with a vividness that transports the reader across time
and space. The opening pages, which describe the startling events
at a musical presentation in Paris in 1891, draw one in immediately
and set the pace, which continue until the story’s end. She
also resists turning the book into a treatise on Tarot. A lesser
writer might have used Tarotian esoteria as a filler in place of
imagination; Mosse uses the topic as a vehicle, discussing it just
enough to provide a general explanation of it, and nothing more.
For those with little interest in the subject, this is a blessing
and leaves plenty of room for what is by far the greatest strength
of SEPULCHRE: the mystery. The supernatural element, nicely layered
over Meredith’s and Léonie’s stories --- joining
them but not overwhelming them --- complete what is in every way a
superior reading experience.

If Mosse’s reputation as a master of suspense was established
by LABYRINTH, then SEPULCHRE cements it.