The Burning Chambers / Kate Mosse

Burning chambers were inquisitorial tribunals set up for the trials of heretics, so this title perfectly suits our story, which takes place against the explosive 16th century atmosphere of religious fanaticism that threatens to ignite into violence with the tiniest misinterpreted word or gesture.

Minou Joubert worries about her father, who has recently returned home from a trip and appears so changed that he no longer leaves the house or cares for his bookshop in the Bastide of Carcassonne. She gets the impression that there are things he wishes to tell her, yet he remains silent... She does her best to keep the shop going to ensure her family's survival. One day, she finds an anonymous letter slipped under the door, addressed to her but containing a message she doesn't understand, and her suspicions that there is something going on deepen.

Piet Reydon, a former soldier who has just arrived on a dangerous mission that could have serious consequences all over France, must rely on his instincts and training to remain at liberty and alive. In these troubles times, whom can he trust? Quite by chance, he witnesses Minou's acts of courage and kindness, and instantly falls in love with her.

Life separates them for a short while, but brings them together again in Toulouse. Minou is Catholic, Piet a Huguenot; fortunately they're both enlightened and don't let this bother them in the least as their coreligionists murder each other all over the place.

After a multitude of escapades, our entire cast of characters seems to converge on the small village of Puivert for a grand reunion. Add to this a stolen miraculous shroud, a missing will, treacherous friends, a family secret, and a mystical châtelaine who will go to any lengths to secure her power, and you get an action-packed romance spiced with intrigue.

This novel grows in interest as its different threads come together and as the characters must make life-altering decisions. These characters are well drawn in the main (I became especially fond of Minou's little sister Alis and her aunt Madame Boussay), though prone to act in the predictable, clichéd ways fictional people are wont to do: completely forgetting to ask a highly important question; refusing to listen to someone's critical information, or getting angry at them for no reason, then regretting it; blurting out something they've been expressly told to keep to themselves...

Additionally, we're asked to believe in a number of coincidences, implausibilities and things that are a little too convenient, simply because they help to advance the plot. Just as an example, how credible is it that a person who was physically and emotionally abused for many years will "recover" and become a confident, socially competent individual in the space of a few days?

Despite these relatively minor quibbles, this book provided an engrossing few hours of good entertainment. The few glimpses we're given into the future — the upcoming royal wedding, a curious headstone in South Africa three centuries later — bode well for the other two books in this trilogy... though not for the characters.

I was provided with a free electronic copy of this book through NetGalley by the publisher, Pan Macmillan, in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ***