I just finished reading “Sepulchre”, by Kate Mosse. Yes, the book came out in 2007, and I had heard about it, but it just now made its way into my hands. 
It is impressive not just by size (over 500 pages), but by content. Mosse (author of “Labyrinth”) gifts us with a “Da Vinci Code” style story that we don’t want to put down.
There are two stories, running along a parallel timeline – one from the past, one in the present. The storyline from the past involves a French brother and sister, their young, widowed Aunt, and their deceased Uncle – who allegedly raised a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre on his estate. The story from the present involves a young American graduate student, Meredith Martin, who is doing research in France on Claude Debussy, and attempting to reconcile her own tortured past.
The connection – one that is nicely woven into the story – is a Tarot deck. In fact, two Tarot decks, one fromt he past, and one frm the present. A chance meeting on the street leads Meredith Martin to a Tarot reader, where she discovers her own likeness on the deck that she chooses for her reading. It is the card entitled La Justice.
From Paris, Martin journeys to Rennes-les-Bains, to a picture, a piano, and a piece of music entitled “Sepulchre 1890″. All of these, including the Tarot deck that she carries, and the one that she will discover, as keys to bringing resolution to a figure from the past, and to her own family history.
Filled with fine detail, and sprinkled with French and Occitan phrases, this is a book well worth reading.
