“Sepulchre” A book review

It is a big thick book.

I got to page 428 out of 739 and felt I have had enough. I don't want to waste however many hours of my life it will take to read the other half.

The book is “Sepulchre” by Kate Mosse and I liked her first book “Labyrinth”. I feel let down and disappointed as I do not like failing or leaving things unfinished. The time slip genre worked for Labyrinth but here she is trying to repeat the formula and it fails: the link is too tenuous.

The first 400 pages introduced a complex situation, introduced complex characters with secrets and there were all sorts of suggestions as to where the plot could have gone. But by page 429 I know there is an evil baddie and why he is out to get them. If you understand the contrived plot then you can easily work out that it can only move in certain directions. The characters are thin and clichéd. Is the plot about Debussy, the Tarot or about Meredith's past as none of the three story-lines is convincing? It is just a case of waiting to see if the psychopath gets them or they get him? Will Meredith and Hal get together and find meaning in life through each other? The author has failed to build up enough tension to make me want to bother to find out the answer to these questions.

I think I will just have to go and get another book.