Quick Summary: Thriller/horror novel set in Belle Époque and modern France. The book falls apart in the final third, to the point that it is, in my opinion, not worth reading.

Title: Sepulchre (Audio Version)

Author: Mosse, Kate

Read by: King, Lorelei

Imprint: Orion Audiobooks

Date of Publication: 2007

Sepulchre tells the story of Leonie Vernier, seventeen years old in 1891, and the related tale of Meredith Marin, an American author travelling in France in 2007. The story starts out on an exciting note, but fails to deliver in the last few chapters.

Leonie Vernier and her beloved older brother, Anatole, flee Paris to avoid a mysterious gentleman who has been trying to find Anatole. They travel to Rennes Les Bains, near Carcasonne, to stay at the home of their uncle's very young widow, Isolde. While there, Leonie discovers a strange chapel-like structure, and a set of oddly compelling Tarot cards.

Meredith Marin ostensibly travels to France to do research for a book on the life of Claude Debussy. In reality, she is hoping to track down her ancestors who lived in that country. She too, soon encounters a mysterious deck of Tarot cards, one where many of the figures seem to bear her own face.

The beginning, as you can see, is promising, and the story carries on well for quite some time before completely falling apart at the end. The last third of the book includes a lot of features I disliked:

        *People acting out of character (for instance, easy-going Anatole agreeing to fight a duel)

        *Unecessary sex scenes in a book that, until this point, contained none at all

      *No resolution whatsoever of the Claude Debussy sub-plot, or indeed, any explanation of how he connects with the rest of the story at all.

Besides these relatively minor flaws, the book fails to connect the real-world, natural antagonists to the supernatural events; forgets about one antagonist altogether and never resolves the plot-points relating to him; and, worst of all, has an abrupt ending which includes the unexplained, very confusing death of a main character.

All in all, despite the fun of the first 2/3 of the book, this novel is not recommended.

Originally Written: September 16, 2010

If you are wondering, as I recall, this was not an abridged edition, and therefore the problems with the book cannot be blamed on the audio format.