It seems too many authors are offered the promise of future publication based on the success of one novel. I had even bought the book myself (rather than boring it from my wonderful school library) and had excitedly saved it for such a moment as this.

I felt the parallel story set in the 4th C was rather dull and repetitive, it was there purely to serve the main story and that showed. It certainly helps to give readers a sense of the lengthy history of the town, and in a sense, Carcassonne itself was a leading character.I was amazed by the writing, by the story and how Mosse manages to captivate the reader with her complex plots and engaging characters.

Authie is a stereotypical villain who you almost thought might be given an evil chuckle to deliver at any moment.

But smuggling refugees over the mountains into neutral territory and sabotaging their Nazi occupiers is only part of their mission. Who do the characters in the Resistance believe these spirits to be, if of God, then why are they not a believer in His army? Mosse seemed to skip over important events, in the narrative, and fill the pages with repetitive dialogue, between the protagonists. And when she meets Raoul, they discover a shared passion for the cause, for their homeland, and for each other. It is clear that both time strands are set in the same place, the countryside of the Languedoc, the forests, the mountains, its people and language, and the weather, anchors the reader firmly in southern France.

Even though I originally read this book some years ago I still remember thoroughly enjoying this final book in the Labyrinth trilogy. Good story, based more in the present than her previous books but still with links to the history of the Languedoc. 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. Set during the Second World, the storyline follows a group of women Resistance fighters who are trying to help people escape the Nazis in France.

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.