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Kate Mosse's basic premise for Labyrinth is splendid: She's quoted on the back of the book as saying: "The Grail legends are usually about men with swords and women getting rescued. I thought, 'You know, I want the women to have the swords.' It's all about them doing their things, they also get lots of sex, and they fall in love, but that's not the point of the story for them. They are the heroes." Um, up to a point, Lord Copper. Sadly Mosse doesn't quite deliver what she promises, and LABYRINTH never lives up to the hype. And hyped it has been, thanks to Mosse's photogenic looks, her background in the book world and the awards. The book's basic problem is that it never flows. That's of course a risk with setting a story in two time periods. And Mosse, to be fair, gives both a chance to run. It's just that she has a tendency to over-explain, meaning a promising scene is brought up short by too much information already. And boy, does LABYRINTH need editing! The book's at least 200 pages too long. A good editor would have reined in Mosse's need to describe every last detail. Scene-setting is good – within reason! Mosse's two heroes are 900 years apart. Alais is entrusted with a ring and a book by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders in southern France. Alice, meanwhile, is working on an archaeological dig in the same area when she stumbles on a mysterious cave. Then people start to die or to go missing, and Alice herself finds her life in danger. Alais is far more fun and a vastly more attractive character. She's got initiative and guts and can do just what the boys can. Alice of the 21st century is a bland spoiled brat whose inability to stick to what appear to be very reasonable rules sets the whole saga in motion. Whereas Alais' decisions seem logical and courageous, Alice makes a couple of what look like very risky judgement calls. She tends to blunder around with no idea of what to do next. So by the end I wasn't that interested in what happened to her – particularly when the end of the book threatens to disappear into woo-woo territory -- but I was keen to know how the Alais plot line was resolved. Sadly a lot of the latter becomes tell rather than show. Maybe your mileage will vary on this, but those of us Da Vinci'd and Cathar'd out on grail quests and codes will grimace and look elsewhere for action.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, July 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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