Kate Mosse is the author of nine novels & short story collections, and most readers will know her for Labyrinth and the rest of this trilogy which has sold multimillion copies. Her books have been translated into 38 languages and published in more than 40 countries. Kate is the Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction - the largest annual celebration of women's writing in the world. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to literature and women.
Kate Mosse is one of my favourite authors, and I had the pleasure of touring with her seven years ago when she came to NZ. Not only is she a literary superstar, she’s also one of the loveliest people you could hope to meet!
The City of Tears is a follow up to her thrilling historical novel, The Burning Chambers. Set in 1572, Minou and her husband Piet travel to Paris to attend a royal wedding which, after a decade of religious wars, is intended to finally bring peace between the Catholics and French Protestants. The couple are looking forward to this celebration. But what the couple doesn’t know is that their oldest enemy, Vidal, will also be there. And within day of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the street, and their beloved daughter, Marta, a spirited seven-year-old will have disappeared without a trace . . .
They make a desperate, frantic search to find their daughter, but they have to make the heart-breaking decision to leave Paris or be killed. They only manage to escape Paris just in time with the help of a sympathetic and courageous Dutch woman. They make a new life for themselves in Amsterdam, scarred by what has happened to their family, forever mourning the loss of their daughter.
But then hope emerges twelve years later, when one of their friends reports seeing a young woman who is strikingly like Minou. Is this their missing daughter? They travel to France again and then have another question to ask – how is it that she is mixed up with their dangerous arch-enemy Vidal?
Fans of Ken Follet or Dan Brown will love this book. It’s an epic, sweeping story of one family’s fight to stay together and survive in the middle of a devastating time in history. It details terrible historical events, but also the deeply personal experiences of a family in the midst of these troubles in a way that is utterly spellbinding.
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Macmillan Publishers