When the group first found out that this was our book, we thought it might be rather long, with almost 700 pages, we decided as Christmas is a busy time for everyone, to run this book over a 2 month period, and use the next meet to just have a lovely Christmas dinner!
The book, in fact was far too long, with everyone thinking it could have been considerably shorter, it had a good mixture of romance and violence, but just kept jumping back and forth between Meredith and the past, and generally just took too long to unfold. Most members found themselves scanning over the parts that they deemed to be irrelevant. Whilst some members can speak basic French, others couldn’t, and so the use of French phrases began to irritate those readers a little.
The most interesting aspects of the book were: the French culture & landscape, riots and stories of daemons. Many members went off to do their own research and have definitely expressed an interest to read more factual information on the subjects. The tarot cards were also an interesting addition for many, again with members going away to research before coming back to the book with a greater understanding.
Our group found that the past was more believable, with Meredith being almost an afterthought of Kate Mosse, a few members also thought that Mosse was portraying herself slightly in the role of Meredith. The murders sometimes happened a little too easily and the dates and places didn’t always seem to add up.
The majority of the characters were well liked, with Leonie definitely coming out on top. Meredith was a little self absorbed, Julien could have been more developed. After having a little look online, it mentioned that the characters are made to represent certain tarot cards, perhaps tying in this theme nicely?
The group thought that the ending was very rushed, a period of about 7 years was crammed into one paragraph, which was made more of a problem considering the length of the book and how much detail Kate Mosse went into for the smallest thing throughout the book. Some of the members were still unsure of what actually happened to Leonie, although everyone expressed an understanding of the spiritual and superstitious element. However, the average ending and overall length of the book, didn’t stop our members from thoroughly enjoying this book, and most people would read another book by Kate Mosse again, some even saying they would read Sepulchre again.
For this book, 7 members attended, giving the book an average of 7 out of 10, lowest score of 6 and highest of 9.
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