The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse

 Languedoc, region in Southern France, was marked by Cathars Inquisitions before the 14th century and after the 15th century the region experienced another Crusade now against Huguenots (French Protestants), who seemed to be putting the strongest resistance in this particular region.

The story begins in 1562 Carcassonne with a 19 year old Minou, who works at her father’s bookshop. A bookshop known for “selling books to suit all religious tastes” and to be “out of step with the increasingly intolerant times.” Her father, Bernard Joubert, was a faithful Catholic, but it was her late mother, who was a true Languedocien, promoting tolerance through selling books expressing her believes. Five years earlier, the plague took her life and now her husband is troubled by the Inquisition. 

One day, Minou receives an anonymous letter with only five words: “She knows that you live.”

Piet Reydon, originally from Amsterdam, is visiting Carcassonne to do business. He does charitable work for Huguenot community in Toulouse.

The Edict of Toleration, which was supposed to give Huguenots’ protection, seems to be meaningless. The Duke of Guise has no intention of honoring it.

Meanwhile, a fragment of the Shroud of Antioch, “in which the body of Jesus was laid in the sepulchre,” gets stolen from the Church in Toulouse. “It was an object of great and holy significance for the Catholic Church, a relic said to be able to work miracles.” And there is someone who will do anything to get it back.

A massacre at Vassy happens; a hundred Huguenots are slaughtered as they gathered in worship.

The attacks on Huguenots continue in other places, businesses and houses are destroyed. They are left homeless with no means to support themselves.

That’s why Piet’s charitable work is so important.

After a brief encounter of Minou and Piet in Carcassonne, their paths cross again in Toulouse. The tensions in the city of Toulouse, further take them to Puivert. 

With a moving prose, the story engages three historical places of Carcassonne, Toulouse, and Puivert, bringing the richness of those places: their history and secrets of those who know those places well.

“Cathar belief and Protestant doctrine have little in common in terms of doctrine and theology. On the other hand, it is fair to suggest that the freedom of spirit and thought that led to Catharism taking so strong a hold in Languedoc in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, before being all but wiped out in the fourteenth century, was reflected in Huguenot communities during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”

If you’re interested in reading about Cathars, highly recommend The Treasure of Montsegur: A Novel of the Cathars by Sophy Burnham.

The story also mentions Catherine, the Queen Regent and Calvin. Further recommendations: The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner and The Betrayal: A Novel on John Calvin by Douglas Bond.

2nd Edition Publication Date: 18 June 2019

Source: Minotaur Books; St. Martin's Publishing Group