Citadel

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The book wisely left out the details of what happened in the Jewish camps (for the most part) and astutely focused on the impact on the families left behind when someone was taken from them. Like their ancestors who fought to protect their land from Northern invaders seven hundred years before, these women—code-named Citadel—fight to liberate their home from the Germans. This disclosure is conveyed in a series of symbolic visions that exhibit the influence of OT prophecies, especially those received by Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.

Really, the book could have done without the Codex - the story of the brave women Resistance fighters is strong enough to stand on its own. And when she meets Raoul, they discover a shared passion for the cause, for their homeland, and for each other.

If we are referring to the "army of spirits" as God's angels, His angels are ministering spirits sent by Him. I enjoyed reading about Carcassonne and greatly enjoyed the history involved in the creation of the novel. Sandrine, a spirited and courageous nineteen-year-old, finds herself drawn into a Resistance group in Carcassonne - codenamed 'Citadel' - made up of ordinary women who are prepared to risk everything for what is right. Although the principal story follows Sandrine and her friends as they attempt to find the codex, while evading capture and throwing Authié and his collaborators off the scent, we also glimpse the far distant history of the region in the subplot of the codex's original journey into the mountains, in the hands of a young, fourth-century monk risking death to save the heretical text from the flames. This action-packed epic contains everything we've come to expect - mystery, adventure and long-buried secrets just waiting to be uncovered.

Source: Free advanced reader copy from William Morrow, and France Book Tours, in exchange for a review. I think this would make a good holiday read - well apart from when the Gestapo are involved - it is pacy and made me question again what I would do if my country was invaded as France was, and how I would respond to torture, but in my opinion it isn't quite as good as her other work, perhaps because instead of telling a more straightforward tale of the resistance, Mosse attempted to press the story into the same shape as the first two Languedoc novels.

I was glad I'd finished it, but I also felt it started to get much stronger around the 7o-80 percent mark and wished some of that beauty was present earlier on. He had no particular destination in mind, only that he had to find somewhere distinctive and sheltered, somewhere where the pattern of the ridges and crests might retain their shape for centuries to come… Forests might be cut down or burn or drowned when a river bursts its banks. The interwoven story of the Codex seemed to me to be superfluous, and diverted from the tale of genuine heroism, on the part of the protagonists. And as a cell of Maquis resistance fighters, codenamed CITADEL, fight for everything they hold dear, their struggle will reveal an older, darker combat being fought in the shadows. The wartime narrative of the group's dramatic deeds and relationships is interwoven with the story of Arinius, a fourth-century monk, and his journey to hide the Codex, a sacred document with the power to summon an invincible army of the dead.

It is also steeped in a passion for the region, its history and legends, and that magical shadow world where the two meet. Citadel is a deeply satisfying literary adventure, brimming with all the romance, treachery and cliffhangers you would expect from the genre. At the centre is a young woman Sandrine and as the book begins we see her becoming aware of what is happening around here and beginning to plan her group. But once again I was drawn quickly into the tale and the location, which Mosse paints so beautifully with her words.

This is the first time I have written in a review on this blog reference to Scripture, but I do not apologize, it would be wrong of me as a reviewer to not state something in a book I see as incorrect, even if the book is fiction. We were not well matched to each other, and after I turned the last page, we parted amicably without so much as exchanging numbers. I really loved both ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Sepulchre’, which brought together elements of my favourite genres – history, suspense, romance, with a twist of the supernatural.