The Burning Chambers is the first in a planned quartet, which is not a structure you see very often in planned novels. Why four? Mosse does what good popular historical novelists do best – make the past enticingly otherworldly, while also claiming it as our own - Independent

Religious fanaticism, political intrigue and the heart-wrenching tale of a lost child add to a highly readable historical adventure, with women firmly centre stage - Mail on Sunday Mosse does what good popular historical novelists do best - make the past enticingly otherworldly, while also claiming it as our own * Independent *The feisty nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, the ominous letter reading ‘She knows that you live’. For me, I want people to fall in love with the history of the Huguenots, and to admire them. I want people to fall in love with my characters, to understand what happens to them, to really feel what they feel when their world is under threat, when war destroys everything they know. That's the true history. It's those forces of history that dominate our lives now. Deft touches show a mastery of preparation, suspension and resolution within the historical thriller form - Financial Times Authentic, absorbing, tense, chilling and powerful. However, the 4.5 is because of the characterisation. I would like Mosse to have focused as much on the characters development as she did on the historical context, allowing us inside the head of the characters.

Rich with historical detail, as you’d expect from Mosse, but it’s Minou, the fiery heroine, who makes this a must-read - Good Housekeeping Book of the Month Mosse’s narrative lyricism, beautifully drawn female characters and deft journey from the past to the present day are a cut above - Scotland on Sunday on The Burning Chambers This set in France around a Catholic Girl Minou Joubert sent a strange letter SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE.Carcassonne 1562. Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. It's 1942, and in Nazi-occupied France, Sandrine – a brave and vivacious nineteen-year-old – is drawn into 'Citadel', a Resistance group in Carcassonne comprised of ordinary women who are prepared to risk everything to fight for what is right.

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Once I've done that, I do foot research, as I call it. We've had a little house in Carcassone, in the southwest of France, for 30 years now. When I'm writing I go there for five days of every month to reconnect with the landscape. I have to have all of the research in my files: maps, photographs, detail, all of that. But the real emotional heart of the story begins as I walk the streets, and climb the mountains, and watch the sun go down, and I see the history in the place itself. If you gave Mary Berry flour, butter, eggs and sugar, you could be absolutely sure she’d create the perfect Victoria sponge cake. In the same way, in The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse expertly combines all the ingredients necessary for a deliciously satisfying historical fiction novel…with the Prologue providing the promise of further appetising slices still to come. A vibrant sequel to 2018’s Burning Chambers . . . The fascinating historical detail fuels the drama and keeps the plot zipping along - Publisher's Weekly