Book Review: The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Title: The Winter Ghosts
Author: Kate Mosse
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication Date: February 3, 2011
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-0399157158
Genre: Fiction, Historical

From the Publisher:

By the author of the New York Times-bestselling Labyrinth, a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage.

In the winter of 1928, still seeking some kind of resolution to the horrors of World War I, Freddie is traveling through the beautiful but forbidding French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Dazed, he stumbles through the woods, emerging in a tiny village, where he finds an inn to wait out the blizzard. There he meets Fabrissa, a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation.

Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered his own role in the life of this remote town.

My Review:

Dark, enticing, and filled with emotion, The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse is a beautifully written story inspired by some rather dreadful events of Cathar history. No worries, one does not need to have majored in Cathar history to follow the book along, Mosse guides the reader with expert skill through the narrative from 1933 back to events in 1928 and back again to 1933, vividly describing France and the backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains in breathtaking detail. The Winter Ghosts has a hint of haunting to the storyline, however it is more a tale of mystery mired in love and redemption with a touch of folklore added to the mix. Mosse’s protagonist Freddie is expertly crafted. The reader first meets Fredrick Watson as he shows a medieval parchment to Monsieur Saurat who inquires, quite naturally, as to how Freddie came into possession of such a historical document and from there the book takes off. The reader will come to know Freddie as more than a grieving brother, wandering lost and confused and about his extraordinary encounter with Fabrissa who is also mourning and they share their respective stories, both tragically sad, filled with longing, and an offering of hope. Mosse quickly draws the reader into the narrative and keeps the reader guessing, engaged, and pondering the mystery. The Winter Ghosts is a deep, multilayered book which will keep the reader engaged until the very end. If I had any real complaints, it would be the book was too short; I was not ready for it to end. This is the first book I have read by Kate Mosse and I will certainly be reading her other books. I would recommend The Winter Ghosts to any reader who likes a very well told story.

About the Author:

Kate Mosse is the author of the New York Times bestselling Labyrinth and Sepulchre and the Co-founder and Honorary Director of the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction. She lives in England and France.

To learn more about author Kate Mosse or her books, please visit here website.

I received a complimentary ARC of The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse from Putnam to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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